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THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC 


THE 


PURITAN   REPUBLIC 


of 


IN  NEW  ENGLAND 


By 
DANIEL  WAIT 


Si   Monumentum    Requiris,    Circumspice 


INDIANAPOLIS 

THE  BOWEN-MERRILL  COMPANY 
Publishers 

t  \  %  ^  ^ 


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H7 


Copyright  1899 
The  Boweu-Mcrrill  Company 


Braunworth,  Munn  &  Barber, 

Printers  and  Bookbinders, 

16  Nassau  Street,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y, 


TO  THE  MEMORY  OF 

JOHN  HOWE 
OF  SUDBURY  AND  MARLBOROUGH,  MASS. 

AND  HIS 

ASSOCIATES  OF  THE  PURITAN  COMMONWEALTH 

OF  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY 

THIS  VOLUME  IS 

INSCRIBED 


PREFACE 

No  period  in  the  history  of  this  country  is  more  interest 
ing  than  that  covered  by  the  Puritan  commonwealth  of  Mas 
sachusetts  Bay.  About  no  other,  not  even  the  revolution 
ary  period,  has  so  much  been  written.  That  interest  in  it 
does  not  flag  is  evidenced  by  the  great  number  of  books  and 
magazine  articles  relating  to  that  period  which  have  been 
published  in  recent  times.  Every  phase  of  life  in  the  Puri 
tan  age  has  received  minute  investigation  and  critical  dis 
cussion.  Old  records  and  documents  have  been  searched, 
and  a  vast  flood  of  light  has  been  turned  upon  the  religious, 
the  political,  the  economic,  the  industrial,  and  the  social  life 
of  the  early  Puritans.  Merely  to  indicate  the  bibliography 
relating  to  that  period  would  require  much  space. 

The  so-called  Theocracy  of  the  Massachusetts  common 
wealth  has  been  a  fruitful  theme,  and  the  discussion  of  its 
religious  intolerance  seems  to  be  as  earnest,  and  almost  as 
rancorous,  today  as  it  was  at  any  former  period. 

Up  to  the  year  1856,  there  had  been  a  great  deal  written 
by  the  historians  designated  by  Mr.  Fiske  as  "ancestor- 
worshipers,"  who  found  little  to  condemn  in  the  Puritans 
of  the  commonwealth  period.  In  that  year  Mr.  Peter  Oliver 
published  a  volume  entitled  "The Puritan  Commonwealth." 
It  is  written  in  keen,  vigorous  and  classic  language,  but  no 
attempt  is  made  by  the  author  to  conceal  his  prejudices.  His 
vindictive  feeling  against  the  early  Puritans  is  so  manifest 
on  every  page  as  naturally  to  excite  distrust  of  every  state- 

(vii) 


Viil  PREFACE. 

ment  he  makes,  and  to  suggest  the  answer  to  all  his  argu 
ments. 

In  1886,  Mr.  Brooks  Adams  published  a  volume  entitled 
"The  Emancipation  of  Massachusetts."  The  chief  differ 
ence  between  Mr.  Oliver  and  Mr  Adams  is,  that  the  former 
hated  all  the  Puritans  alike,  while  the  latter' s  animosity  is 
directed  principally  against  the  ministers,  whom  he  styles  the 
"priests." 

Many  of  Mr.  Adams's  deductions  from  historical  facts 
seem  to  be  as  far-fetched  as  those  which  he  tells  us  he  has 
drawn  from  Mr.  Frank  Cushing's  "unpublished  results"  of 
his  researches  among  the  Zuni  Indians  of  New  Mexico  and 
Arizona,  which,  as  Mr.  Adams  affirms,  "seem  to  lead  to 
well-defined  conclusions  when  applied  to  New  England  his 
tory."  The  published  results  of  these  researches  are  val 
uable  and  interesting,  but  it  is  only  by  the  aid  of  a  very  vivid 
or  eccentric  imagination  that  we  can  find  in  them  anything 
throwing  any  light  upon  New  England  history  or  upon  the 
religion  and  character  of  the  Puritan  ministers. 

Mr.  Hallowell  has  also  appeared  on  the  field  with  a  book 
about  "The  Quaker  Invasion  of  Massachusetts,"  and  shows 
by  the  vigor  with  which  he  espouses  their  cause  that  time 
has  not  abated  either  the  zeal  or  the  resentment  of  the  Quak 
ers  against  their  ancient  Puritan  persecutors.  Charles  Fran 
cis  Adams,  in  1893,  contributed  a  volume  entitled  "Massa 
chusetts,  Its  Historians  and  Its  History,"  relating  chiefly 
to  what  he  terms  the  "theologico-glacial"  period,  or  "ice 
age,"  in  Massachusetts.  He,  too,  takes  issue  with  the  ''an 
cestor-worshipers" — the  historians  of  what  he  calls  the 
"filio-pietistic"  school. 

It  is  against  the  Theocracy  that  the  most  malignant  at 
tacks  have  been  made  by  modern  writers ;  and  when  we 
read  the  maledictions  which  they  hurl  against  the  old  Puri 
tan  ministers  indiscriminately,  we  can  not  avoid  thinking 
that  they  have  improved  but  little  on  the  pirate  of  whom  the 


PREFACE.  ,  IX 

story  is  told  that,  having  caught  a  New  England  fisherman, 
he  compelled  the  poor  man,  as  a  grim  joke,  to  jump  up  and 
curse  Cotton  Mather  three  times. 

Mr.  Palfrey,  the  great  historian  of  New  England,  has 
written  a  history  of  the  Massachusetts  Puritans  that  will 
stand  as  an  enduring  monument  to  himself  as  well  as  to 
them;  and  Dr.  Ellis,  in  "The  Puritan  Age  in  Massachu 
setts"  (1888),  has  said  in  a  dispassionate  and  candid  way 
about  all  that  can  be  said  in  behalf  of  the  Puritans  against 
the  charge  of  religious  intolerance. 

From  the  standpoint  of  an  Englishman,  writing  at  the 
close  of  the  nineteenth  century,  we  have  the  recent  work  of 
Mr.  Doyle  (published  in  1889),  "The  English  Colonies  in 
America — The  Puritan  Colonies."  It  is  manifest  that  his 
work  was  very  carefully  prepared  after  an  exhaustive  study  of 
all  the  attainable  authorities,  and  probably  no  other  author, 
English  or  American,  has  given  the  subject  of  the  religious 
and  political  policy  of  the  Massachusetts  Puritan  common 
wealth  more  careful  study,  or  has  discussed  it  more  dispas 
sionately,  or  has  expressed  his  conclusions  with  more  judi 
cial  fairness.  Still  it  is  doubtful  if  any  American  writer 
would  agree  with  all  of  Mr.  Doyle's  conclusions. 

There  seems  to  be  no  end  of  the  books,  magazine  articles, 
pamphlets  and  addresses  relating  to  the  Theocracy,  and  the 
diversity  of  opinion  manifested  after  so  great  a  lapse  of 
time  goes  to  prove  that,  try  as  we  may,  we  can  not  wholly 
divest  our  minds  of  the  influence  of  inherited  ideas,  trans 
mitted  from  generation  to  generation.  These,  even  after  the 
lapse  of  more  than  tv/o  centuries,  still  retain  vitality  and 
force  enough  to  mold  the  opinions  of  men,  and  to  cause 
them  to  travel  apart,  in  a  more  orderly  way,  it  is  true,  but 
still  on  much  the  same  old  lines  on  which  our  ancestors  sep 
arated  from  each  other. 

Indeed  the  very  subject  seems  to  breed  a  contagion  of  dis 
sent,  so  that,  in  discussing  the  religious  and  political  policy 


X  PREFACE. 

of  the  Massachusetts  Puritan  commonwealth,  modern  com 
mentators  seem  to  have  reached  the  point  at  which  the  early 
Puritans  themselves  at  one  period  arrived — when  no  one 
agreed  with  any  other  in  any  opinion  whatever.  It  is  not 
probable,  therefore,  that  there  will  soon  be  an  end  of  books 
about  the  Puritan  commonwealth,  or  an  end  of  differences  of 
opinion  among  men  who  write  about  them. 

The  difficulty  of  rinding  out  the  truth  in  regard  to  any 
matter  that  was  the  subject  of  controversy  in  the  early  days 
of  the  commonwealth  is  forcibly  expressed  by  one  of  the 
correspondents  of  Mr.  Savage,  as  appears  in  a  note  to  his 
edition  of  Winthrop's  History  of  New  England  (Vol.  I,  p. 
59):  "I  have,"  says  this  correspondent,  "lost  nearly  all 
confidence  as  to  the  truth  of  what  is  related.  I  see  in  my 
own  times  that  I  can  not  get  at  the  truth  of  what  passes  be 
fore  my  own  eyes.  How,  then,  can  I  know  what  took  place 
two  hundred  years  ago,  when  I  have  no  evidence  but  that 
which  is  distorted  by  the  worst  passions." 

Where  so  much  has  been  written,  it  would  be  presumption 
to  lay  claim  to  great  originality  in  either  material  or  thought. 
What  I  have  aimed  to  do  is  to  bring  together,  in  a  volume 
of  moderate  size,  some  of  the  features  in  the  history  of  the 
government  and  people  of  the  Massachusetts  Puritan  com 
monwealth,  that  I  thought  would  be  most  interesting  to  the 
people  of  today,  and  especially  to  those  who  are  descend 
ants  of  the  early  Puritans.  I  have  attempted  to  describe  the 
public  and  the  private  life  of  the  early  Puritans,  their  cus 
toms,  their  characteristics,  their  struggles  to  establish  and 
maintain  themselves  against  so  many  odds  in  "this  remote 
corner  of  the  earth."  In  doing  this,  I  have  endeavored  to 
portray  the  early  Puritans  as  they  would  have  wished  to  be 
portrayed;  as  Cromwell  wished  to  be  portrayed  when  he 
said  to  the  painter:  "Paint  me  as  I  am,  warts  and  all." 

I  have  essayed  the  still  more  difficult  task  of  tracing  the 


PREFACE.  XI 

evolution  of  a  commonwealth  from  a  colony,  of  a  constitu 
tion  from  a  charter,  of  a  republic  from  a  corporation. 

No  inconsiderable  part  of  the  labor  in  the  preparation  of 
this  volume  has  been  devoted  to  an  attempt  to  show  the  de 
velopment  of  republican  ideas  and  institutions.  This  sub 
ject  could  not  conveniently,  in  accordance  with  the  plan  of 
the  volume,  be  treated  separately,  but  the  main  purpose  of 
Chapters XII  to  XVII,  inclusive,  is  to  illustrate  it.  References 
to  all  portions  of  the  volume  which  help  to  an  understand 
ing  of  it  are  grouped  together  in  the  index,  under  the  title 
"Republic." 

I  do  not  believe  in  all  the  beliefs  of  the  Puritan  Fathers, 
but  I  thoroughly  believe  in  them — in  their  manhood,  their 
fortitude,  their  patriotism,  their  integrity,  their  devotion  to 
duty,  their  reverent  recognition  of  God  in  all  their  public 
and  private  affairs — the  qualities  that  have  made  them  pre 
eminent  as  the  most  striking  figures  in  all  the  history  of 
American  civilization. 

I  can  say  with  the  great  historian,  Palfrey,  that  "with 
the  belief  which  I  entertain,  I  could  not  have  been  admit 
ted  to  any  church  established  by  the  Fathers,  if,  indeed 
an  attempt  to  propagate  my  belief  would  not  have  made 
me  an  exile  from  their  society."  I  can  also  say  with  him 
that,  while  endeavoring  to  be  veracious  and  just,  "I  should 
have  been  neither  if  I  had  affected  to  conceal  my  venera 
tion  for  the  founders  of  New  England." 

Some  things  they  did  that  we  can  not  justify,  and  for 
which  it  is  difficult  to  find  even  a  reasonable  excuse,  but 
they  did  a  great  deal  more,  for  which  their  posterity  must 
be  forever  grateful. 

I  am  indebted  for  kindly  aid  in  the  preparation  of  this 
volume  to  many  persons,  but  to  no  one  more  than  to  Mr. 
Charles  R.  Williams,  for  his  patient  oversight  and  valuable 
suggestions.  DANIEL  WAIT  HOWE. 


TABLE  OF   CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 


THE    BEGINNING 

The  village  of  Scrooby  I 

The  Scrooby  congregation  of  Separatists  I 

Persecutions  of  the  early  Puritans  in  England  I 

Efforts  to  escape  from  England  2 

Emigration  to  Holland  3 

Condition  of  the  emigrants  there  3 

Emigration  of  Leyden  congregation  to  America  4 

The  Plymouth  colony  4 

Continued  persecution  of  the  Puritans  in  England  5 

Archbishop  Laud  and  his  persecution  of  the  Puritans  5 

The  Star  Chamber  and  the  High  Commission  7 

Subserviency  of  English  courts  and  judges  in  reign  of  Charles  I  7 
Inhuman  punishment  of  the  Puritans 

Difficulty  of  escaping  from  England  8 
Rev.  John  White  of  Scrooby  10 
His  life  and  character  10 
His  efforts  to  establish  a  colony  in  America  12 
Motives  of  him  and  of  his  aiders  in  the  enterprise  12 
A  grant  of  land  obtained  and  Endicott  goes  to  America  15 
Charter  procured  for  "the  governor  and  company  of  the  Massachu 
setts  Bay  in  New  England  "  16 
Transfer  of  charter  to  America  16 
John  Winthrop  chosen  governor  17 
Address  issued  by  colonists  prior  to  their  departure  from  England  17 
Their  designs  as  to  future  government  18 
Winthrop  and  company  sail  from  Yarmouth  18 
Colonists  gathered  from  all  parts  of  England  19 
Character  of  the  early  colonists  19 
Character  of  John  Winthrop  20 
Character  of  John  Endicott  21 
Situation  of  colonists  upon  their  arrival  in  America  24 


(xiii) 


XIV  TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 

White  predecessors  of  colonists  in  Massachusetts  25 

Establishing  settlements  25 

Sufferings  during  first  winter  26 


CHAPTER   II 

MAKING  A   GOVERNMENT 

Founded  upon  the  charter  27 

Question  as  to  right  to  transfer  the  charter  to  America  27 

Why  charter  was  prized  by  the  colonists  28 

Proprietary  rights  granted  by  charter  28 

Power  granted  to  elect  governor  and  other  officers  29 

Power  to  make  laws,  etc.  29 

Power  to  make  war  29 

Limitations  upon  powers  granted  30 

Implied  powers  31 

Sovereign  control  not  relinquished  32 

Large  jurisdictional  territory  left  undefined  32 

Construction  of  charter  by  the  colonists  33 

Powers  of  the  governor  34 

Establishing  a  seat  of  government  34 

First  meeting  of  court  of  assistants  34 

Providing  for  the  ministers  34 

Appointing  justices  34 

Admission  of  new  freemen  35 

Efforts  of  assistants  to  perpetuate  their  power  35 

None  but  church  members  admitted  freemen  36 

Freemen  resume  exercise  of  right  to  elect  governor,  etc.  36 

Restriction  of  right  of  suffrage  to  freemen  36 

Oaths  of  fidelity  and  allegiance  36 

Exercise  of  legislative  power  38 

[establishing  courts  38 

Exercise  of  taxing  power  38 

Military  measures  38 

Other  steps  taken  to  establish  a  government  39 

First  matter  attended  to  by  General  Court  39 

How  General  Court  enforced  respect  for  its  authority  39 

/Enforcing  respect  for  the  ministers  40 

Surveillance  over  strangers  41 

^Banishment  for  immoral  conduct  and  for  religious  opinions  41 

Strict  laws  against  strangers  41 

Law  as  to  excommunicated  persons  41 


TABLE    OF   CONTENTS.  XV 

Progress  in  establishing  a  government  in  first  ten  years  42 

Inconveniences  resulting  from  absence  of  a  code  of  laws  43 

Rules  for  administering  justice  in  the  absence  of  laws  43 

Further  evils  resulting  from  absence  of  a  code  of  laws  44 

Efforts  to  establish  a  code  of  laws  45 

Committee  appointed  to  draft  code  45 

Rev.  John  Cotton's  "  Moses,  His  Judicials  "  45 

Another  committee  appointed  46 

Body  of  Liberties  adopted  47 


CHAPTER  III 

PURITAN   LAWS,    LAWYERS   AND    COUkTS 

Study  of  their  laws  essential  to  understanding  history  of  the  Mas 
sachusetts  Puritans  48 
Explanation  of  delay  in  adopting  code  of  48 
Rev.  Nathaniel  Ward's  work  in  framing  Body  of  Liberties  49 
Why  Body  of  Liberties  so  called  49 
Protection  of  life,  liberty  and  property  under  49 
Rights  of  foreigners  50 
Trial  by  jury  secured  50 
Torture  and  inhuman  punishment  forbidden  50 
Slavery  and  villeinage,  provisions  as  to  50 
Refugees  from  other  countries  protected  50 
Crimes  punished  capitally  50 
Scriptural  authority  for  capital  punishment  51 
Transmission  of  property  51 
Re-enactment  of  English  statute  of  amendments  and  jeofails  51 
Monopolies  forbidden  51 
Libel  and  slander  51 
Revisions  of  1649,  1660  and  1672  52 
Whitmore's  edition  of  colonial  laws  52 
Illegal  voting  52 
Revenue  laws  53 
Tenure  of  lands  defined  53 
Indian  titles  recognized  53 
Towns  authorized  to  dispose  of  their  lands  54 
Law  of  descents  54 
Divorces  55 
Husband's  authority  over  wife  55 
Parents  and  children  55 
Servants  55 


XVI  TABLE    OF   CONTENTS. 

Slavery  55 

Various  other  laws  56 

Penalties  inflicted  for  violations  of  laws  56 

Laws  rigidly  enforced  58 

Enforced  impartially  58 

Extensive  scope  of  legislation  59 

Examples  of  early  laws  and  punishments  59 

Great  number  of  local  officers  60 

How  Puritan  laws  should  be  judged  61 

Comparison  of  'Puritan  laws  with  those  of  England  61 

Comparison  with  those  of  other  American  colonies  62 

Law  against  witchcraft  62 
Body  of  Liberties  contained  essential  principles  of  Magna  Charta      63 

Courts  in  early  period  of  commonwealth  63 

Forms  of  judicial  proceedings  65 

Jurors  permitted  to  consult  ministers  65 

Deficiency  in  records  65 

Law  books  in  commonwealth  period  66 

Lawyers  during  that  period  66 

Professional  lawyers  ignored  67 

Legal  documents  drawn  by  justices  and  ministers  68 

No  fees  allowed  lawyers  68 

Prejudice  against  the  lawyers  68 

Lawyers  ineligible  to  seat  in  General  Court  69 

Patrons  as  substitutes  for  lawyers  69 

Lechford's  attempt  to  practice  law  69 

Lack  of  learned  judges  70 

Judge  Samuel  Sewall  71 

His  education  and  conscientiousness  71 

His  advice  to  Justice  Davenport  72 

His  opposition  to  slavery  72 

His  diary  and  letters  72 

No  development  of  law  as  a  science  74 

Evil  results  of  want  of  learned  lawyers  and  judges  74 

Absence  of  influence  of  lawyers  in  restraining  the  Theocracy  75 

Conservative  tendency  of  the  legal  profession  75 

CHAPTER  IV 

THE   PURITANS   AND   THE   INDIANS 

Plague  among  the  Indians  prior  to  arrival  of  the  colonists  77 

No  semblance  of  organized  government  among  77 

Their  title  to  land  recognized  by  the  colonists  77 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS.  XV11 

Uncontrollable  appetite  for  intoxicating  liquor  78 

Efforts  to  civilize  and  convert  them  78 

The  "  Praying  Indians  "  78 

Troubles  with  the  Pequots  79 
Efforts  of  Sassacus  to  unite  Pequots  and  Narragansetts  against 

the  colonists  79 

Precarious  situation  of  the  colonists  79 

Defeat  and  extermination  of  the  Pequots  80 

The  alternative  presented  to  the  colonists  81 

Indians  continue  to  be  hostile  82 

Claims  of  the  Indians  82 

Claims  of  the  colonists  82 

Indians  become  better  prepared  for  war  83 

Appearance  of  King  Philip  as  a  leader  84 

Injustice  of  Massachusetts  historians  to  King  Philip  84. 

His  abilities  as  a  leader  85 

The  master  spirit  of  the  Indian  coalition  86 

His  untiring  efforts  to  form  such  coalition  86 

Beginning  of  King  Philip's  war  87 

Its  sanguinary  character  88 

Attack  upon  Canonchet  and  his  defeat  90 

Canonchet  captured  and  Philip  slain  91 

Effects  of  the  war  upon  the  colony  91 

Effects  of  the  war  upon  the  Indians  92 

Puritan  ideas  of  the  red  man  93 

CHAPTER  V 

DOMESTIC  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE 

LARGE  FAMILIES  94 

DWELLING-HOUSES  94 

Their  construction  04 

How  heated  and  lighted  oc 

Glass  and  oiled  paper  in  windows  95 

The  kitchen  95 

Furniture  ^6 
Winthrop's  reproof  of  deputy  for  extravagance  in  household 

furniture  96 

Improvement  in  houses  and  furniture  96 

APPAREL  97 

Styles  of  women's  dresses  97 

Laws  against  extravagance  in  dress  98 

ii— PUR.  REP. 


XV111  TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 

Rev.  Nathaniel  Ward's  sermon  against  ungodliness  of  female 

attire  99 
Debate  between  Rev.  Roger  Williams  and  Rev.  John  Cotton 

on  women's  veils  100 

Punishment  for  wicked  apparel  101 

Protests  against  men  wearing  long  hair  102 

FOOD  AND  DRINK  103 

Thanksgiving  dinners  103 

Increase  of  intemperance  and  laws  to  restrain  104 

Tea  104 

TOBACCO  ;  LAWS  AGAINST  USE  OF  104 

INNS  AND  ORDINARIES  105 

As  news  centers  105 

Governmental  supervision  of  105 

Celebrated  colonial  inns  107 

ROADS  AND  TRAVEL  108 

Old  colonial  roads  168 

Modes  of  travel  108 

PUBLIC  DAYS,  HOLIDAYS,  ETC.  109 
Celebration  of  Christmas  and  other  English  holidays  prohibited  109 

Fast  and  Thanksgiving  days  109 

Thursday  lecture  days  109 

Election  days  no 

AMUSEMENTS,  GAMES,  ETC.  no 

Laws  against  no 

Theatrical  entertainments  and  singing  schools  no 

Hunting  parties,  house  raisings,  etc.  in 

COURTSHIP  AND  MARRIAGE  in 

Opportunities  for  and  restrictions  upon  "  courting  "  112 

Laws  as  to  marriage  112 

Marriage  etiquette  113 

Judge  Sewall's  courtships  113 

Marriage  portions  and  bridal  outfits  120 

John  Hull's  daughter's  marriage  portion  120 

Judith  Sewall's  marriage  outfit  121 

Beulah  Howe's  marriage  portion  122 
Curious  experiment  of  General  Court  to  compel  husband  and 

wife  to  live  together  123 

Suits  for  breach  of  promise  of  marriage  124 

DOCTORS  124 

Punishment  of  quacks  124 

FUNERALS  124 

How  conducted  124 

Early  burying  grounds  125 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS.  XIX 

Monuments  and  tombstones  126 

Giving  presents  at  funerals  126 
Expenses  of  funerals  of  widow  of  Rev.  John  Norton  and  of  Rev. 

John  Cobbett  127 

Law  restraining  extravagance  at  funerals  127 

RANK  127 

Early  distinctions  128  •"' 

Titles  128  - 

Family  arms  129  -"" 


CHAPTER  VI 

INDUSTRIAL  AND  COMMERCIAL  LIFE 

-  LAWS  AGAINST  IDLENESS  130 

Single  persons  disposed  to  service  130 

Parents  required  to  put  children  to  work  131 

Tithing-men  required  to  put  idlers  to  work  131 

AGRICULTURE  131 

Fertility  of  soil  131 

Domestic  animals  132 

Agricultural  implements  132 

Laws  for  benefit  of  farmers  132 

FISHING  133 

MECHANICAL  TRADES  133 

MANUFACTURES  133 

Mills  133 

Tanneries  133 

Salt  manufactories  133 

Pottery  at  Salem  133 

Iron  works  at  Lynn  133 

Encouragement  of  spinning  133 

Weaving  at  Rowley  134 

COMMERCE  WITH  OTHER  COLONIES  AND  COUNTRIES  134 

CURRENCY  134 

Scarcity  of  money  134 

Wampum  currency  135 

Musket  balls  made  legal  tender  135 

Barter  currency  authorized  135 

Mint  established  136 

Pine  tree  shillings  137 

No  banks  nor  paper  currency  137 

No  "fiat"  money  137 


XX  TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 

WAGES  AND  PRICES  138 

Regulation  of  by  law  138 

Trial  of  Robert  Keayne  for  extortion  140 

Rev.  John  Cotton's  rules  for  trading  142 

Inability  to  enforce  laws  regulating  wages  and  prices  143 


CHAPTER  VII 

FRONTIER  LIFE 

Differences  between  urban  and  rural  life  145 

Settlement  of  Watertown  145 

Settlement  of  Sudbury  146 
Permission  of  General  Court  necessary  to  establish  a  settlement       146 

Laying  off  the  boundaries  147 

Purchasing  the  Indian  title  147 

Allotment  of  lands  147 

Military  features  prominent  in  frontier  life  148 

Organization  of  the  militia  148 

Enforcing  attendance  on  military  exercises  148 

Infantry,  cavalry  and  artillery  organizations  148 

Forts  and  garrison  houses  149 

Military  watches  and  sentinels  150 

Training  fields  150 

Muster  days  150 

Indian  attack  on  Marlborough  151 

Apprehension  of  Indian  wars  151 

Public  enterprises  152 

Few  artisans  152 

Occupations  of  the  settlers  152 

Staple  crops  152 

Almost  everything  made  by  hand  and  at  home  152 

"An  Evening  at  Home  "  on  the  frontier  153 

How  monotony  of  work  was  relieved  155 
Growth  and  prosperity  of  frontier  settlements  prior  to  King  Philip's 

war  156 

Inventory  of  a  prosperous  farmer  157 

Settlers  not  injured  by  lack  of  dissipation  and  amusement  158 

Recuperation  of  frontier  towns  after  King  Philip's  war  158 
Attention  of  settlers  to  moral  and  intellectual  needs  of  community  159 

Settlers  continually  pushing  out  the  frontier  159 

Settlement  of  Marietta,  Ohio  159 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS.  XXI 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   PURITAN   SABBATH 

Began  on  Saturday  night  160 

Similarity  to  Scotch  Saturday  night  160 

No  "courting"  on  Saturday  night  allowed  in  commonwealth  163 

Laws  enforcing  observance  of  Sabbath  163 

Strict  enforcement  of  these  laws  164 

The  meeting-house  165 

How  heated  165 

Interior  arrangement  166 

Seating  and  dignifying  the  meeting-house  167 

The  minister  and  the  visiting  minister  167 

The  tithing-man's  duty  at  the  church  services  168 

Puritan  boys  in  church  168 

How  the  congregation  was  summoned  169 

Order  of  exercises  169 

Instrumental  music  170 

Hymn  books  used  170 

Setting  the  tune  171 

The  noon-house  171 

Taking  up  the  collection  172 

Close  of  services  and  dispersing  of  the  congregation  172 


CHAPTER  IX 

EDUCATION,    BOOKS    AND    LITERATURE 

Early  laws  for  education  of  children  and  apprentices                          174 

Only  orthodox  teachers  employed  174 

Beginning  of  Harvard  college  174 

Early  book  stores  175 

Private  libraries  175 

Rev.  Cotton  Mather's  library  175 

John  Winthrop's  library  176 

Elder  Brewster's  library  176 

Judge  Sewall's  books  177 

Cost  of  books  178 

Governmental  supervision  over  printing  179 

Number  and  kind  of  early  publications  179 

Winthrop's  History  of  Neiv  England  180 


XX11  TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 

Johnson's  Wonder-ivorking  Providence  j8o 

Mason's  History  of  Pequot  War  j8o 

Gookin  :  Historical  Collection,  etc.  180 

Historical  Account,  etc.  igo 

History  of  Neiv  England  181 

Higginson's  Neiv  England's  Plantation  l8i 

Wood's  Neiv  England's  Prospect  181 

Josselyn's  New  England  Rarities  and  Tivo  Voyages  181 

Anne  Bradstreet's  Poems  181 

Michael  Wigglesworth's  Poems  183 

Ability  to  write  poetry  a  necessary  accomplishment  183 

The  ancient  "elegies"  184 
Charles  Francis  Adams's  criticism  of  the  books  of  the  "Theologico- 

Glacial"  period  184 
Juvenile  literature  186 
The  Bay  Psalm-book  186 
The  New  England  Primer  186 
Early  almanacs  187 
Religious  books,  etc.  188 
Industry  of  the  Puritan  ministers  188 
Rev.  Nathaniel  Ward's  writings  189 
Rev.  John  Cotton's  writings  189 
Rev.  John  Norton's  writings  189 
Comparison  of  the  religious  books  and  law  books  of  the  I7th  cen 
tury  I9i 
Learning  of  the  early  New  England  clergy  192 
Prodigious  influence  of  their  books  and  sermons  192 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  THEOCRACY 

Cardinal  ideas  of  founders  of  the  Massachusetts  commonwealth  193 

Character  of  their  religion  193 

The  Theocracy  not  recognized  as  a  distinct  body  195 

Composed  of  a  small  minority  195 

Learning  and  industry  of  the  ministers  196 

Their  fearless  disposition  197 

Their  religious  views  in  accord  with  those  of  the  first  settlers  197 

Isolation  of  colonies  tended  to  bind  them  closer  to  the  ministers  197 
Great  affection  existing  between  ministers  and  their  congregations  197 

First  care  of  colonists  to  provide  for  ministers  198 

None  but  church  members  admitted  freemen  199 

Law  as  to  strangers  200 


TABLE    OF   CONTENTS.  XXiii 

Laws  against  Baptists  and  Quakers  200 

Extension  of  laws  as  to  blasphemy  and  heresy  200 

Care  to  see  that  churches  were  orthodox  202 
Modification  of  Body  of  Liberties  to  prevent  organization  of  any  but 

orthodox  churches  202 

None  but  orthodox  ministers  allowed  to  be  called  to  the  churches  204 

Laws  prohibiting  building  of  any  but  orthodox  meeting-houses  204 

Closing  doors  of  Baptist  meeting-house  in  Boston  20 >. 

Laws  enforcing  respect  for  ministers  204 

Laws  against  disturbing  church  services  204 
Laws  enforcing  attendance  on  religious  services  and  observance  of 

the  Sabbath  205 

Laws  for  Godly  bringing  up  of  the  children  and  servants  205 

Teachers  in  schools  and  college  required  to  be  orthodox  206 

Attempts  of  Theocracy  to  regulate  men's  secret  thoughts  206 
Same  men  who  composed  the  churches  also  voters  at  the  town 

meetings  207 

Power  of  ministers  to  exclude  from  church  membership  207 

Great  influence  of  the  ministers  207 

Their  power  in  General  Court  and  in  all  civil  and  domestic  affairs  208  ' 

Intimate  union  between  church  and  state  209  ' 

Tendency  to  religious  tyranny  and  persecution  209 

Effect  of  vesting  unlimited  power  in  ecclesiastics  209 

Power  of  clergy  fully  recognized  by  civil  authorities  209 

Opposition  to  advance  of  the  Theocracy  210 

The  banishment  of  the  Brownes  210 

Contest  of  Theocracy  with  Rev.  Roger  Williams  211 

His  character  211 

His  religious  views  212 

His  views  of  government  212 

His  banishment  212 

Subsequent  disputation  between  him  and  Rev.  John  Cotton  212 
Modification  in  later  life  of  Williams  of  his  views  as  to  Quakers, 

religious  toleration,  etc.  213 

His  affectionate  regard  for  Massachusetts  and  for  Winthrop  213 

His  services  to  Massachusetts  in  the  Indian  wars  2:4 
Shabby  treatment  of  Williams  in  his  old  age  by  the  Massachu- 

•^  setts  authorities  214 

Antinomian  controversy  215 

Ann  Hutchinson  215 

Her  teachings  215 

Doctrines  of  her  disciples  215 

Rev.  John  Wheelwright  becomes  a  convert  216 


XXIV  TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 

Rev.  John  Cotton  much  impressed  by  her  teachings  216 

Sir  Henry  Vane  sides  with  her  216 

People  and  ministers  divided  217 

Wheelwright  tried  and  convicted  of  heresy  217 

Remonstrance  against  proceedings  in  his  case  218 

Contest  for  governorship  between  Vane  and  Winthrop  218 

Rev.  John  Wilson's  "stump  speech"  218 

Character  of  Vane  219 

Banishment  of  Wheelwright  223 

Trial  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  223 

Winthrop's  conduct  upon  her  trial  223 

Proceedings  upon  her  trial  224 

i     Her  banishment  231 

,     Her  treatment  before  being  sent  away  231 

I    Persecution  of  remonstrants  in  favor  of  Wheelwright  232 
iTev.  John  Cotton's  narrow  escape  from  condemnation  as  a  heretic  233 

He  is  finally  restored  to  confidence  of  his  brother  ministers  233 

Petition  of  William  Vassal  and  others  234 

Proceedings  against  them  235 
Persecution  of    the  Baptists;  treatment  of    Clark,  Crandall   and 

Holmes  235 

Holmes  fined  and  flogged  236 

Presentment  of  Wm.  Witter  for  being  re-baptized  236 

Degradation  of  Henry  Dunster  237 

Further  persecution  of  the  Baptists  237 

The  Quaker  invasion  of  Massachusetts  237 
Fines,  imprisonments  and  scourgings  of  no  avail  to  keep  them 

away  237 

They  persist  in  returning  after  banishment  238 

Four  of  them  hanged  238 

Danger  of  uprising  of  the  people  against  further  hangings  239 

The  message  from  the  king  239 

Final  triumph  of  the  Quakers  239 


CHAPTER  XI 

RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  THEOCRACY — Continued 

Characteristics  of  some  of  the  dissenting  sects  in  the  early  period 

of  the  commonwealth  240 

The  Familists  240 

Old-time  excuses  for  hanging  Quakers  241 

Charter  gave  no  authority  to  banish  them  242 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS.  XXV 

Summary  of  arguments  on  the  question  243 
Characteristics  and  conduct  of  early  Quakers  243 
Elements  of  the  Theocracy  leading  to  its  destruction  245 
Disagreements  of  its  members  245 
Rise  of  new  doctrines  and  sects  246 
Erroneous  opinions  discovered  at  first  synod  246 
Religious  vagaries  during  the  Antinomian  period  248 
Distractions  resulting  from  religious  differences  249 
Errors  continue  to  thrive  after  banishment  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  250 
The  Cambridge  synod  called,  and  Cambridge  platform  promul 
gated  251 
Other  synods  called  to  suppress  schisms  251 
Effect  on  the  Theocracy  of  the  expansion  of  commerce  252 
Effect  of  the  growth  of  republican  ideas  252 
Majority  of  people  opposed  to  religious  persecutions  252 
Charges  of  Oliver  and  Adams  against  the  Puritan  clergy  253 
Puritan  clergy  always  steadfast  for  the  people  under  Andros  and 

in  the  revolution  254 

How  the  clergy  should  be  judged  254 

Puritan  ideas  as  to  religious  and  political  toleration  255  • 

They  were  not  hypocrites  256 

The  heroism  of  the  intolerance  of  the  age  257 

Rev.  Hugh  Peters  as  a  type  257 

Religious  persecutions  in  seventeenth  century  258 

Religious  intolerance  in  other  American  colonies  258 

Samuel  Gorton's  experience  262 
Progress  and  causes  of  religious  and  political  toleration  in  the 

United  States  262 

Persecution  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison  264 

Quaker  persecution  of  Catholics  in  Rhode  Island  265 

Quaker  persecution  of  Abolitionists  in  Indiana  265 


CHAPTER  XII 

PLANTING   THE  SEED    OF  A  REPUBLIC  —  DEVELOPMENT  OF 
THE   TOWN    SYSTEM   AND    LOCAL    SELF-GOVERNMENT. 

Idea  of  local  self-government  a  fixed  feature  in  the  United  States  269 

Settlement  of  Oklahoma  territory  269 

Origin  of  local  self-government  269 

Origin  of  New  England  town  governments  270 

The  Dorchester  plan  273 

The  Charlestown  plan  273 


XXVI  TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 

Recognition  of  towns  as  distinct  local  municipalities  274 

Chief  officers  of  the  towns  and  their  duties  275 

Town  meetings  276 

Cardinal  idea  of  the  town  system  276 

Continuance  of  the  town  system  in  New  England  277 
Its  importance  as  a  protection  against  centralization  and  jobbery    277 

In  aid  of  school  system  277 

As  a  political  factor  277 

Its  importance  in  the  revolutionary  period  278 

Thomas  Jefferson's  tribute  to  280 

Kinds  of  business  transacted  at  early  town  meetings  281 


CHAPTER  XIII 

HOW    THE   REPUBLIC    GREW — ESCAPE    FROM    DEMOCRACY 

Clergy  favored  monarchy  282 
Freemen  did  not  at  first  contemplate  a  republic,  but  opposed  to  ar 
bitrary  power  283 
Winthrop's  objections  to  Connecticut  government  284 
Early  usurpations  by  the  assistants  284 
Opposition  of  people  of  Watertown  to  taxation  without  represen 
tation  285 
Election  of  deputies  to  General  Court  285 
Struggle  of  people  to  obtain  Body  of  Liberties  286 
Opposition  of  people  to  standing  council  286 
Opposition  to  electing  a  governor  for  life  287 
Clashing  between  deputies  and  assistants  287 
Dispute  over  a  stray  pig  and  its  results  288 
Winthrop  favors  claim  of  assistants  289 
Results  in  establishing  right  of  assistants  to  sit  as  a  separate  legis 
lative  body  and  to  cast  a  negative  vote  289 
Winthrop's  trial  and  speech  290 
Deputies  in  closer  touch  with  the  people  292 
Deputies  oppose  giving  unlimited  power  to  the  clergy  293 
Winthrop  also  opposes  claim  of  clergy  294 
Growth  of  republic  retarded  by  refusal  to  extend  privileges  of  297 
citizenship  to  non-church  members  297 
Commonwealth  before  its  close  was  essentially  a  republic  298 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS.  XXvii 


CHAPTER  XIV 

LAYING  THE  FOUNDATIONS   OF   A   GREATER  REPUBLIC — 
THE   UNITED    COLONIES   OF   NEW    ENGLAND 

Origin  of  the  confederation  301 
Purposes  of  its  formation  301 
Preliminary  negotiations  304 
Shyness  of  Connecticut  304 
Failure  of  first  attempt  to  form  304 
Dissensions  between  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  305 
Renewal  of  negotiations  and  causes  therefor  306 
Articles  of  confederation  307 
Why  Maine  and  Rhode  Island  were  excluded  307 
Cardinal  provisions  of  the  articles  308 
Reasons  set  forth  and  name  adopted  308 
Powers  and  duties  of  commissioners  denned  308 
Express  prohibition  against  interference  with  the  local  govern 
ments  309 
Provisions  as  to  war,  etc.  309 
Legislative  powers  of  commissioners  310 
Provisions  as  to  fugitives  from  justice  and  fugitives  from  service  31 1 
Idea  of  local  self-government  prominent  311 
Articles  contained  the  germ  of  a  greater  republic  312 
Towns  and  population  in  the  confederation  313 
End  of  the  confederation  314 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  INDEPENDENCE  AND  THE  REVOCATION 
OF  THE  CHARTER — GENESIS  OF  A  STILL  GREATER  RE 
PUBLIC 

Beginning  of  idea  of  an  independent  government  315 
No  such  reasons  at  first  as  those  stated  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence  315 
What  the  colonists  apprehended  316 
The  royal  government  in  Virginia  316 
When  the  idea  of  an  independent  government  took  definite  shape  318 
Winthrop's  statement  of  grounds  for  setting  up  318 
The  claims  at  first  based  on  the  charter  318 


XXV111  TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 

How  the  colonists  construed  the  charter  319 

Their  reasoning  in  support  of  their  claims  320 

Their  claims  became  more  manifest  in  Cromwell's  time  320 

Why  they  struggled  so  hard  to  maintain  their  charter  321 

Beginning  of  troubles  between  colonists  and  England  322 

Demand  of  Privy  Council  for  production  of  charter,  and  refusal 

of  General  Court  322 

Institution  and  failure  of  quo  tvarranto  proceedings  in  court  of 

King's  bench  323 

Further  demand  for  return  of  charter  and  technicality  by  which  it 

was  saved  from  revocation  323 

Attitude  of  commonwealth  toward  Cromwell  and  the  Long  Parlia 
ment  324 
Complaints  of  Gorton  and  others  324. 
Claims  put  forth  by  colonists  as  to  the  nature  of  their  relations  to 

England  324- 

Why  they  did  not  petition  for  enlarged  powers  327 

Winslow  sent  as  agent  to  England  and  his  instructions  328 

A  remonstrance  and  petition  sent  to  Parliament  328 

Failure  of  complaints  of  Gorton  and  others  329 

Threat  of  Long  Parliament  to  recall  the  charter  329 

Petitions  to  Parliament  and  Cromwell  330 

Cromwell  remains  steadfast  friend  of  the  commonwealth  331 

Colonists  had  no  idea  of  having  him  rule  over  them  331 

The  navigation  acts  passed  in  1651  332 

Prosperity  of  the  commonwealth  during  Cromwell's  time  332 

Accession  of  Charles  II  and  the  ominous  tidings  from  England        337 
The  General  Court  sends  more  addresses  and  punishes  the  apostle 

John  Eliot  for  seditious  writings  338 

Organization  of  Council  of  Foreign  Plantations  339 

Additional  navigation  acts  of  1660  and  1663  339 

Renewal  of  complaints  against  the  colonists  and  sending  of  Norton 

and  Bradstreet  as  agents  340. 

Another  address  and  the  answer  of  the  king  340 

The  king's  demands  ill  received  340 

Norton  made  a  scapegoat  34 1 

The  king  sends  over  commissioners  to  hear  complaints,  etc.  342 

The  reception  of  the  commissioners  343 

Action  of  the  General  Court  after  their  departure  344 

Another  address  sent  to  the  king  and  Clarendon's  reply  344 

Action  of  the  commissioners  in  the  other  colonies  346 

Return  of  the  commissioners  and  renewal  of  discussion  with  the 

General  Court  346 

Attempt  and  failure  of  commissioners  to  secure  an  acknowledg 
ment  of  their  authority  347 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS.  XXIX 

Failure  of  commissioners  to  try  appeals  349 

Commissioners  again  depart  and  are  recalled  by  the  king  349 

The  General  Court  overturns  courts  established  by  the  commission 
ers  in  Maine  and  refuses  to  send  agents  to  England  350 
Also  calls  to  account  those  favoring  compliance  with  demands  of 

the  King  350 

But  makes  the  king  a  present  of  ship  masts  350 

The  grounds  then  existing  of  their  claim  of  right  to  independence    351 
Discussion  as  to  validity  of  these  grounds  352 

Governmental  powers  exercised  by  them  354 

No  foundation  for  them  in  their  charter  355 

Denial  of  English  claims  of  taxing  power  356 

Lull  in  efforts  of  English  rulers  to  subdue  colonists  and  the  reasons 

for  it  356 

War  between  England  and  the  Dutch  356 

Condition  of  affairs  in  England  357 

English  rulers  not  wholly  oblivious  to  affairs  in  Massachusetts          357 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  INDEPENDENCE  AND  THE  REVOCATION 
OF  THE  CHARTER — GENESIS  OF  A  STILL  GREATER  RE 
PUBLIC — Continued . 

Peace  declared  between  English  and  Dutch  359 

Passage  of  additional  navigation  laws  359 

Renewal  of  complaints  in  England  against  the  commonwealth  au 
thorities  359 
Edward  Randolph  ;  his  implacable  hostility  to  the  commonwealth    359 
Refusal  of  commonwealth  authorities  to  comply  with  the  king's 

demands  361 

Randolph  sent  by  the  king  as  a  special  messenger ;  his  reception 

by  the  governor  and  General  Court  361 

Governor  Leverett's  statement  of  right  of  colonists  to  govern  them 
selves  362 
Stoughton  and  Bulkeley  sent  as  agents  to  England  and  their  in 
structions  363 
Disposition  of  claims  of  Gorges  and  Mason  363 
Purchase  of  Maine  by  commonwealth  and  refusal  to  surrender  it 

to  the  king  364 

Refusal  of  agents  to  answer  any  complaints  except  those  of  Gorges 

and  Mason  364 

General  Court  sends  more  addresses  but  refuses  compliance  with 

the  king's  demands  364 


XXX  TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 

Claim  of  exemption  from  taxation  because  not  represented  in  Par 
liament  365 
Beginning  of  resistance  to  arbitrary  exercise  by  England  of  the 

taxing  power  365 

Return  of  Stoughton  and  Bulkeley  with  a  letter  from  the  king 

stating  his  demands  366 

Excuses  given  by  General  Court  for  its  failure  to  send  other  agents  367 
Opposition  to  exercise  by  Randolph  of  his  office  of  customs  col 
lector  367 
The  king  writes  another  letter  and  sends  Randolph  with  a  commis 
sion  as  customs  collector,  etc.  368 
No  respect  paid  to  king's  letters  or  Randolph's  commission,  and 

the  king  sends  another  severe  letter  368 

Dudley  and  Richards  sent  as  agents  to  England  369 

Answers  made  by  them  to  the  king's  complaints  and  demands          369 
Their  letters  cause  dismay  373 

The  General  Court  orders  days  of  fasting  and  prayer  and  sends 
more  addresses,  but  refuses  compliance  with  the  king's  de 
mands  373 
Alleged  attempt  to  bribe  the  king  374 
Randolph  files  articles  against  the  commonwealth  of  high  crimes, 

etc.  374 

£>jio  warranto  proceedings  begun  in  Court  of  Chancery  375 

Randolph  sent  to  serve  the  writ  with  another  letter  from  the  king  376 
The  arguments  of  the  elders  against  submission  to  the  king's  de 
mands  376 
The  situation  in  England  and  Massachusetts  377 
The  assistants  vote  to  submit  but  the  deputies  refuse  378 
The  quo  ivarranto  proceedings  pushed  to  a  speedy  hearing  379 
The  judgment  of  forfeiture  of  the  charter  and  the  grounds  of  it  379 
The  accession  of  James  II  and  the  issue  of  the  exemplification  of 

the  judgment  380 

New  and  strange  sights  in  store  for  the  people  of  Massachusetts      381 


CHAPTER   XVII 

THE   ANDROS    SEQUEL 

The  authorities  continue  to  carry  on  the  commonwealth  for  a  short 

time  after  revocation  of  charter  383 

Randolph  appears  with  copy  of  judgment  and  commission  for 

organization  of  a  provisional  government  383 

Last  session  of  General  Court  383 

Changes  between  beginning  and  end  of  commonwealth  383 


TABLE    OF   CONTENTS.  XXXI 

Growth  of  Boston  384 

People  enjoying  comforts  and  luxuries  of  wealth  385 

Changes  in  manners  and  tastes  of  people  386 

Relaxation  of  Puritan  authority  387 

Arrival  of  Gov.  Edmund  Andros  387 

Powers  of  governor  and  council  387 

Andros's  fair  professions  387 

Tyrannical  course  of  new  governor  and  council  389 

The  judges  selected  by  Andros  389 

Change  in  great  seal  390 

Massachusetts  helpless  390 

Tyrannical  rule  of  Governor  Cranfield  of  New  Hampshire  391 

Andros  deposed  391 
The  new  king  of  England  not  favorable  to  independence  of  the 

colonists  391 

Arbitrary  and  tyrannical  acts  of  his  successors  391 

The  republic  continues  to  grow  392 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE    PASSING   OF    THE     PURITANS — LOOKING    BACKWARD 
AND    ALSO    LOOKING    FORWARD 

Change  in  historic  style  of  writers  about  the  Puritans  of  the  com 
monwealth  393 
Speculation  as  to  what  kind  of  government  would  have  been  estab 
lished  without  Winthrop  and  Endicott                                         394 
The  Puritans  of  the  commonwealth  believed  in  morality  394 
They  also  believed  in  education                                                               395 
They  were  intense  lovers  of  liberty  395 
They  were  economical  in  public  and  private  expenditures  396 
But  were  not  parsimonious  in  their  expenditures  in  defense  of 

their  country  396 

They  have  impressed  their  characteristics  on  every  community 

established  by  them  397 

Settlement  of  Marietta,  Ohio  397 

Charges  which  the  Puritans  might  bring  against  the  people  of  this 

age  398 

Changes  in  character  of  population  of  New  England  398 

What  has  become  of  the  descendants  of  the  old  Puritans?  400 

Changes  in  religious  character  of  people  400 

The  "emancipation"  of  Massachusetts  still  going  on  at  a  rapid  rate  401 
The  future  of  Massachusetts  401 


NOTE  TO  CITATIONS 


The  references  in  this  volume  to  Winthrop's  "  History  of  New  Eng 
land"  are  to  Savage's  edition;  those  to  Hutchinson's  "  History  of  New 
England  "are  to  the  third  edition  (1795);  those  to  the  Massachusetts 
Colonial  Laws  are  to  Whitmore's  edition ;  those  to  the  "Andros  Tracts'' 
are  to  the  three-volume  edition  published  by  the  Prince  Society,  under 
the  editorial  supervision  of  Mr.  Whitmore ;  those  to  Johnson's  "Wonder- 
Working  Providence," etc.,  Hubbard's  "History  of  New  England,"  the 
Sewall  Papers,  the  Sewall  Letters,  and  to  many  other  authorities,  are 
to  the  reprints  contained  in  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Collections. 
The  reprints  of  some  of  the  books  and  documents  referred  to  are  con 
tained  in  Force's  "Historical  Tracts,"  Young's  "Chronicles  of  Massa 
chusetts,"  or  other  volumes  usually  designated  in  the  citation. 

In  order  to  avoid  multiplicity  of  citations  many  of  the  quotations  in 
the  text,  especially  those  from  the  Massachusetts  Records  and  those 
from  the  Massachusetts  Colonial  Laws,  are  made  without  special  refer 
ences  to  the  volumes  and  pages  from  which  they  were  obtained;  but  in 
such  cases  the  source  of  authority  for  the  particular  quotation  is  gener. 
ally  obvious,  and  the  volume  and  page  can  readily  be  found.  The  fol 
lowing  table  includes  only  the  authorities  to  which  special  references 
are  made. 


Hi— PUR.  REP.  (xxxiii) 


TABLE  OF  CITATIONS 


Adams,  Brooks.  Emancipation  of  Massachusetts  253 

Adams,  Charles  Francis.  Massachusetts ;  Its  Historians  and  Its 

History  185, 243 
Adams,  John  Quincy.  Address  to  Mass.  His.  Soc.  (Mass.  His.  Coll., 

3d  Ser.,  Vol.  9)  211,303 

Alger.  Doctrine  of  Future  Life  195 

Amory.  Paper ',  etc.  (Mass.  His.  Soc.  Proc.)  389 
Andros  Tracts  355,  360,  388,  390 

Atlantic  Monthly  Magazine  101,  160,  246 

Barrows.  Dorchester  in  Colonial  Period  (i  Mem.  His.  of  Boston) 

95.  273 

Barry.    History  of  Framingham  68,  78,  157 

Barry.    History  of  Massachusetts  390 

Bay  Psalm  Book  170,  186 

Blackstone.    Commentaries  61,  63 

Bradford.    History  of  Plymouth  Plantation  I 

Bradstreet  (Anne).    Poems  181 

Bryce.    American  Commonwealth  75,  277 

Buckle.    History  of  Civilization  in  England  6,  193 

Burns.    Cotter* s  Saturday  Night  160 

Century  Magazine  131 
Chalmers.  Annals  301,  314,  331,  364,  366,  368,  369,  374,  375, 381,  384 

Clarke.    ///  News  from  New  England  (Mass.  His.  Coll.,  4th  Ser., 

Vol.  2)  237 

Coffin.    Reminiscences  265 

Coke.    Commentaries  on  Littleton  191 

Cooke.    History  of  Virginia  261 

Cooley.     Constitutional  Limitations  270 

Cotton.    Spiritual  Milk  for  American  Babes  186 

Danforth  Papers  (Mass.  His.  Coll.,  2d  Ser.,  Vol.  8)  349 

De  Tocqueville.    Democracy  in  America  75 

Dickens      Tale  of  Two  Cities  62 

Dillon,  John  B.    Oddities  of  Colonial  Legislation  63,  259,  262 

Dillon,  Thomas.    Municipal  Corporations  270 

Doyle.    English  Colonies  in  America  213,  218 

Drake.    Roxbury  in  the  Colonial  Period  386 

Earle,     Costumes  of  Colonial  Times  97 

Earle.     Customs  and  Fashions  in  Old  New  England  97,103 

Earle.  Sabbath  in  Puritan  New  England  160,  165 
Edes.  Charlestown  in  the  Colonial  Period  (i  Mem.  His.  Boston)  386 

(xxxv) 


XXXVI  TABLE    OF    CITATIONS. 

Edwards.     Works  194 

Eggleston.    Husbandry  in  Colony  Times  (5  Cent.  Mag.)  131 

Eliot.      The  Christian  Commonwealth  (Mass.  His.  Coll.,  3d  Ser., 

Vol.  9)  33S 

Ellis.    Puritan  Age  in  Massachusetts  237,  246,  248,  294,  298,  401 

Everett.     Orations  10 

Felt     Historical  Account  of  Massachusetts  Currency  134,138 

First  Century  of  the  Republic  259,  263,  384,  400 

Fiske.    Beginnings  of  New  England     19,  21,  85,  175,  220,  251, 399,  400 
Force.     Historical  Tracts  13,  168,  181,  189 

Foote.    Rise  of  Dissenting  Faiths  (i  Mem.  His.  of  Boston)  254 

Goodell.     Origin  of  Towns  in  Massachusetts  (Mass.  His.  Coll.,  2d 

Ser.)  271 

Gookin.    Historical  Collection  of  the  Indians  180 

Gookin.    Historical  Account  of  the  Doings  and  Sufferings  of  the 

Christian  Indians ,  etc.  180 

Gookin.    History  of  New  England  181 

Green.    Short  History  of  the  English  People  19 

Griswold.    Female  Poets  of  America  182 

Hale.    History  of  the  United  States  241 

Hallowell.     Quaker  Invasion  of  Massachusetts  242 

Harper's  Magazine  303 

Hening.    Statutes  of  Virginia  259,  260,  261,  395 

Higginson,  Francis.    New  England' s  Plantation  96,181 

Higginson,  T.  W.    Puritan  Minister  (12  Atlantic  Monthly)  101, 160,  246 
Hildreth.    History  of  the  United  States  259,265 

Hoshour.    Altisonant  Letters  189,  note 

Hotten.    Lists  of  Emigrants  to  America  9 

Howard.    Local  Constitutional  History  of  the  United  States 

61,  269,  271,  278 
Hubbard.    History  of  New  England  (Mass.  His.  Coll.,  2d  Ser., 

Vols.  7  and  8)  101,  212,  234,  303 

Hudson,  Alfred  S.    History  of  Sudbury  131,  148,  150,  156 

Hudson,  Charles.    History  of  Marlborough 

58,  91,  106, 146,  151,  163,  168,  196,397 

Hume.    History  of  England  222,317,378 

Hunter.    Founders  of  New  Plymouth  I 

Hunter.     Collections ',  etc.  i 

Hurst.    Religious  Development^  etc.  (First  Century  of  the  Republic) 

259,  263 

Hutchinson.     Collection  of  Papers,  etc.  28,  376,  396 

Hutchinson.    History  of  Massachusetts  19,  58,  81,  101,  167,  175,  192,  204, 

206,  223, 228,  233,  235,  238,  244,  249,  252,  282,  288,  293,  296,  299,  304, 

308,  320,  327,  330,  332,  345,  349,  373,  574 

Indiana  Historical  Society  Publications  266 

Jefferson.     Works  280 


TABLE    OF    CITATIONS.  XXXV11 

Johnson.     Wonder- Working  Providence,  etc.  (Mass.  His.  Coll.,  2d 

Ser.,  Vols.  7  and  8)  19,  134,  180,  333,  334 

Josselyn.    New  England  Rarities  181 

Josselyn.     Two  Voyages  172,  181,385 

Julian.    Rank  of  Charles  Osborn,  etc.  (Ind.  His.  Soc.  Pub.,  Vol.  2)    266 
Junius.    Letters  254 

Kent.     Commentaries  66,  191 

Lechford.    Plain  Dealing,  or  News  from  New  England 

63,  76,  169, 172,  354 

Lewis.    History  of  Lynn  127 

Lives  of  Chief  Fathers  of  New  England  126 

London  Quarterly  Magazine  183 

Lossing.    New  England  Confederacy  (25  Harper's  Mag.)  303 

Macaulay.    History  of  England  I 

Magazine  of  American  History  204 

Mason.    History  of  the  Pequot  War  180 

Massachusetts  Colonial  Laws  48,  51,  52,  74,  78,98,  99,  103,  106,  109,  no, 

112,  132,  133,  136,  140,  149,  150,  I60,  163,  164,  174,  199,  200,  201,  202, 

203, 204, 205, 206, 274, 275,  276 

Massachusetts  Historical  Collections       I,  14,  19,  63,  73,  78,  92,  101,  113, 

114, 115, 119, 121, 126,  129,  134,  138, 169,  170,  171,  172,  178,  195,  211, 

212,  234,  235,  284,  303,  333.  334,  338,  349.  3?6,  379,  399 

Massachusetts  Historical  Society  Proceedings  176,  271,  389 

Massachusetts  Records    17,  28,  35,  42,  66,  98,  105,  108,  124,  130,  135,  136, 

139,  140,  175,  204,  251,  274,  285,  290,  308,  341 

Mather     Magnalia  9,  55,  94,  184,  215,  232,  283,  288 

Memorial  History  of  Boston   17,  70,  95,  97, 134, 179, 196,  239,  254, 273, 386 
Mill.    Representative  Government  271 

Morse.     Universal  Geography  399 

Morton,  Nathaniel.    New  England's  Memorial  184,212 

Morton,  Thomas.    New  English  Canaan  112,  168 

New  England  His.  Gen.  Register  101,  108 

New  England  Magazine  95,  160,  165 

New  Englander  Magazine  183 

New  England  Primer  186 

Norton.     Orthodox  Evangelist  190 

Oliver.    Puritan  Commonwealth  81,  216,  223,  240,  241 

Palfrey.    Address  to  Mass    His.  Soc.  (Mass.  His.  Coll.,  3d  Ser., 

Vol.9)  92,399 

Palfrey.    History  of  New  England       24,  59,  71,  75,  84,  95,  131,  213,  239 

251,  262,  323,  340,  363,  374,  384 
Parker.     Origin,  etc.,  of  the  Towns  of  New  England  (Mass.  His. 

Soc.  Proc.,  2d  Ser.)  271 

Pomeroy.     Constitutional  Law  269 

Poore.     Charters  and  Constitutions  28 

Prince.    Annals  6,  188 


XXXV111  TABLE   OF   CITATIONS. 

Ramage.    Beautiful  Thoughts  from  Latin  Authors  390 

Revolution  in  New  England  Justified  (Andros  Tracts)  388 

Savage.    Notes  to  Winthrop's  History  of  New  England  210,  232 

Scudder.    Life  in  Boston  in  the  Colonial  Period  (i  Mem.  His.  of 

Boston)  70, 97 

Sewall.    Letters  (Mass.  His.  Coll.,  6th  Ser ,  Vols.  I  and  2)  71,  72,  73,  119, 

121,  138,  170,  178 

Sewall.    Papers  (Mass.  His.  Coll.,  5th  Ser.,  Vols.  5, 6  and  7)  73,  1 13,  1 14, 

115,  126,  129,  171,  195 

Shaw.     Commonwealth  vs.  Alger  (7  Gushing)  33,  49 

Sheldon.    History  of  Deerfield  79185,95,153,167 

Smith.    Boston  and  the  Neighboring  Jurisdictions  (i  Mem.  His.  of 

Boston)  134 

Sparks.    American  Biography  219 

Spofford.    American  Almanac  188 

Sumner.    History  of  American  Currency  134 

Tarbox.    New  England  Poetry  of  the  Seventeenth  Century  (30  New 

Englander  Magazine)  183 

Tyler.    History  of  American  Literature  181,189,207 

Upham.    Life  of  Vane  (4  Spark's  Amer.  Biog.)  219 

Walker,  Charles.    History  of  Athens  Co.  (Ohio)  397 

Walker,  Francis  A.     Growth  and  Distribution  of  Population  (First 

Century  of  Republic)  400 

Ward.  Simple  Cobbler  of  A gawam  (Force's  Historical  Tracts)  189 
Washburn.  Judicial  History  of  Massachusetts  66,  67,  68,  70,  389,  390 
Weeden.  Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  England  1 76 

Welde.    Short  Story  of  the  Rise,  Reign  and  Ruin  of  the  Anti- 

nomians  218 

Wells.  Progress  in  Manufacture  (First  Century  of  the  Republic)  384 
White.  Planters'  Plea  (Force's  Historical  Tracts)  13 

Whitmore.    Notes  to  Andros  Tracts  390 

Whitmore.  Notes  to  Colonial  Laws  of  Massachusetts  52,  189,  note 
Whittier.  The  Old  Burying  Ground  125 

Whittier.     The  King's  Missive  239 

Wigglesworth.     Poems  183 

Willard.    New  England  Meeting  House  (i  New  England  Maga 
zine)  160,  165 
Wilson.    Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power  265 
Winsor.    Literature  of  the  Colonial  Period  (\  Mem.  His.  of  Boston) 

179, 181,  196,  207 

Winthrop.    History  of  New  England   44,  45,  74,  112,  135,  140,  143,  144, 

1 80,  208,  210,  218, 231,  232,  233,  246,  247,  248,  249,  250,  261,  283,  284, 

285,  287..  290,  294,  295,  304,  306,  307,  308,  325,  326,  328,  329 

Wood.    New  England's  Prospect  181 

Young.     Chronicles  of  Massachusetts  13,  16,  17,  181 


THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC 


THE  BEGINNING 

No  Virgil  would  ever  begin  a  poem  with  "I  sing 
of  John  White  of  Scrooby."  There  is  nothing  poetic 
in  the  man,  the  place  or  the  associations.  But,  in  a 
plain  prose  account  of  a  plain  people,  it  is  proper  to 
begin  with  John  White  of  Scrooby.  We  can  not, 
however,  fully  understand  why  it  was  that  John 
White  and  his  associates  took  such  an  interest  in 
planting  a  colony  in  America,  without  some  explana 
tion  of  the  first  exodus  of  Puritans  from  Scrooby  to 
Holland. 

Scrooby  was  a  village  on  the  river  Idle  in  Notting 
hamshire,  England.1  Here  in  1607  was  a  congrega 
tion  of  the  branch  of  Puritans  called  Separatists.  They 
were,  says  Bradford,2  "  hunted  &  persecuted  on  every 

1  The  Rev.  Joseph   Hunter,  in  The  Founders  of  Neiv  Plymouth,  de 
scribes  the  exact  location    as    follows  :      "  Scrooby  will    be    found  in 
the  maps  about  a  mile  and  a  half  south  of  Bawtry,  a  market  and  port 
town  situated  on  the  boundary  line  between  Nottinghamshire  and  York 
shire.     It  was  itself,  in  the  time  when  Brewster  resided  there,  one   of 
the  port  towns  on  the  great  road  between  London  and  Bostwick."     See 
also  the  same  writer's  Collections  Concerning  the  Early  History  of  the 
Founders  of  New  Plymouth,  Mass.  His.  Coll.,  4th  Ser.,  Vol.  i,  p.  52. 

2  History  of  Plymouth  Plantation,  Mass.  His.  Coll.,  4th  Ser.,  Vol.  3, 
p.  10. 


;2'  ,    THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

side" ;  some  "  were  taken  &  clapt  up  in  prisons,  others 
had  their  houses  besett  &  watcht  night  and  day  & 
hardly  escaped  their  hands;  and  ye  most  were  faine 
to  flie  &  leave  their  howses  &  habitations  and  the 
means  of  their  livelihood."  But  it  was  not  easy  to 
escape.  "  For,  though  they  could  not  stay,  yet  were 
they  not  suffered  to  goe,  but  ye  ports  &  havens  werej 
shut  against  them,  so  as  they  were  faine  to  seeke 
secrete  means  of  conveance  &  to  bribe  &  fee  ye  mar 
iners  &  give  exterordinarie  rates  for  their  passages." 
In  1607  a  ship  was  hired  to  transport  a  company  of 
them  to  Holland,  but  the  master  of  the  ship  betrayed 
them  to  the  "catcpoule  officers,"  who  took  them  off 
the  ship  and  "  rifled  &  ransaked  them,  searching 
them  to  their  shirts  for  money,  yea  even  ye  women 
furder  then  became  modestie  and  then  caried  them 
back  into  ye  town  &  made  them  a  spectackle  &  wonder 
to  ye  multitude,  which  came  flocking  on  all  sids  to 
behould  them."  Some  were  put  in  prison  and  others 
were  bound  over  to  the  next  assizes,  and  so  this  at 
tempt  to  escape  ended  in  failure. 

The  next  year  a  Dutch  captain  agreed  to  transport 
another  company,  but  after  part  of  the  men  had  got 
on  board  the  officers  swooped  down  upon  the  fugi 
tives  with  a  "  greate  company,  both  horse  &  foote, 
with  bills  &  gunes  &  other  weapons  ;  for  ye  country 
was  raised  to  take  them."  The  Dutch  captain  be 
came  panic-stricken,  and  swore  a  great  oath  and  put 
off  to  sea,  taking  the  men  already  on  board  and  leav 
ing  the  rest  and  the  women  and  children.  Of  the 
men  left  on  shore  some  escaped;  those  who  re 
mained,  together  with  the  women  and  children,  fell 


THE    BEGINNING.  3 

a  prey  to  the  officers.  "  Pitifull  it  was  to  see  ye 
heavie  case  of  these  poore  women  in  this  distress  ; 
what  weeping  &  crying  on  every  side,  some  for  their 
husbands,  that  were  caried  away  in  ye  ship  as  is  be 
fore  related:  others  not  knowing  what  should  become 
of  them  &  their  litle  ones  ;  others  againe  melted  in 
teares,  seeing  their  poore  litle  ones  hanging  aboute 
them,  crying  for  feare,  and  quaking  with  could." 
The  officers  did  not  know  what  to  do  with  them.  It 
would  not  do  to  imprison  so  many  women  and  inno 
cent  children;  those  whose  husbands  and  fathers  had 
gone  could  not  go  with  them;  "  and  to  send  them 
home  againe  was  as  difficult,  for  they  aledged,  as  ye 
trueth  was,  they  had  no  homes  to  goe  to,  for  they 
had  either  sould  or  otherwise  disposed  of  their  howses 
&  livings."  So,  after  they  had  been  turned  over  by 
one  constable  to  another,  all  became  glad  to  get  rid 
of  them  on  any  terms,  "  for  all  were  wearied  & 
tired  with  them." 

Finally  some  of  the  Scrooby  congregation,  and 
some  of  the  neighboring  congregation  of  Gainsbor 
ough,  succeeded  in  getting  to  Holland.  They  re 
mained  about  one  year  at  Amsterdam  and  about 
eleven  years  at  Leyden.  But,  while  they  enjoyed 
in  their  new  home  the  religious  freedom  they  sought, 
their  lot  was  a  hard  one.  "  For,  though  they  saw 
faire  &  bewtifull  cities,  flowing  with  abundance  of 
all  sorts  of  welth  &  riches,  yet  it  was  not  longe  be 
fore  they  saw  the  grime  &  grisly  face  of  povertie  com 
ing  upon  them  like  an  armed  man,  with  whom  they 
must  bukle  &  incounter,  and  from  whom  they  could 
not  flye."  They  were  poor  and  had  to  work  hard, 


4  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

so  hard  that  all  were  bowed  down  under  the  weight 
of  their  labors  and  growing  prematurely  old  5  even 
their  children  " became  decreped  in  their  early  youth; 
the  vigor  of  nature  being  consumed  in  ye  very  budd 
as  it  were."  But  this  was  not  all.  They  were  un 
der  a  foreign  rule;  they  could  not  adapt  themselves, 
with  their  ideas,  to  the  ways  and  customs  of  their 
Dutch  neighbors  ;  their  children  were  going  off  on 
long  voyages,  and  they  were  being  tempted  and  led 
astray  from  the  faith  of  their  fathers,  and  were  inter 
marrying  with  their  neighbors.  The  direful  pros 
pect  was  presented  to  Puritans  there  of  losing  their 
nationality,  their  faith,  their  very  language,  and  of 
being  swallowed  up  and  lost  sight  of  among  a  for 
eign  people. 

So  the  Leyden  congregation,  the  one  which  com 
prised  those  who  had  originally  come  from  Scrooby, 
and  of  which  John  Robinson  and  William  Brewster 
were  members,  began  to  cast  about  for  some  new 
place  of  settlement.  They  finally  concluded  to  go  to 
America,  and  this  was  the  beginning  of  the  move 
ment  which  culminated  in  the  settlement  of  the  col 
ony  at  Plymouth  in  1620. 

The  Plymouth  colony  was  the  first  in  America 
which  had  been  prompted  by  a  desire  for  greater  re 
ligious  freedom.  But  it  did  not  greatly  flourish. 
Eleven  years  after  it  was  founded  it  had  only  about 
500  population,  and  it  never  became  an  important 
factor  in  American  colonial  history.  It  did  not  form 
even  a  nucleus  about  which  to  gather  the  great  Puri 
tan  immigration,  which,  a  few  years  later,  sought 


THE    BEGINNING.  5 

refuge  in  America,  and  which  founded  the  Massa 
chusetts  commonwealth. 

It  is  probable  that  no  such  immigration  would  have 
come,  and  that  the  Puritan  commonwealth  never 
would  have  been  founded,  if  the  persecutions  of  the 
Puritans  in  England  had  ceased.  But  they  did  not 
cease.  James  I  died  in  1625,  and  was  succeeded  by 
Charles  I.  The  advent  of  the  new  monarch  and  his 
despotic  course  intensified  the  great  struggle  of  the 
English  people,  begun  in  the  reign  of  his  predeces 
sor,  to  establish  constitutional  limits  which  would  pre 
serve  the  liberty  of  the  people  against  the  aggressions 
of  arbitrary  power.  With  Charles  I  came  Laud. 
He  had  given  proof  of  his  persecuting  spirit  before  he 
became  archbishop.  While  Bishop  of  London  he 
had  begun  the  work  of  purging  his  diocese  of  Puri 
tans.  An  example  of  his  hatred  of  the  Puritan  min 
isters  is  seen  in  his  treatment  of  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Shepard,  a  young  Puritan  minister  who  was  com 
pelled  to  flee  from  England  and  who  afterwards  be 
came  eminent  in  America.  When  summoned  before 
Laud  Shepard  found  him  in  a  towering  rage.  Laud 
told  him  that  he  had  been  "  more  cheated  and  equiv 
ocated  with  by  some  of  my  malignant  faction  than  ever 
was  man  by  Jesuit.  At  the  speaking  of  which  words  he 
looked  as  though  blood  would  have  gushed  out  of  his 
face,  and  did  shake  as  if  he  had  been  haunted  with  an 
ague  fit,  to  my  apprehension,  by  reason  of  his  extreme 
malice  and  secret  venom."  He  railed  at  Shepard, 
calling  him  a  "  prating  cox-comb,"  and  accusing  him 
of  belonging  to  "  a  company  of  seditious,  factious,  bed 
lams,"  and  forbade  him  to  exercise  any  ministerial 


6  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

functions  under  the  threat  that  if  he  did  "I  will  be 
upon  your  back,  and  follow  you  wherever  you  go,  in 
any  part  of  the  kingdom."  The  conclusion  of  the 
interview,  as  given  by  Shepard,  was  as  follows:  "I 
prayed  him  to  suffer  me  to  catechise  on  the  Sabbath 
days  in  the  afternoon  ;  he  replied,  '  Spare  your  breath, 
I  will  have  no  such  fellows  prate  in  my  diocese ;  get 
you  gone,  and  now  make  your  complaints  to  whom 
you  will.'  So  away  I  went,  and  blessed  be  God  that 
I  may  go  to  him."1  In  1633  Laud  was  made  Arch 
bishop  of  Canterbury  and  became  one  of  the  chief 
favorites  of  the  king.  His  subsequent  career  has 
earned  for  him  the  distinction  of  being  one  of  the 
most  infamous  prelates  in  the  history  of  England. 
"  His  memory,"  says  an  historian,  of  his  own  coun 
try,2  "is  still  loathed  as  the  meanest,  the  most  cruel, 
and  the  most  narrow-minded  man  who  ever  sat  on 
the  episcopal  bench."  Macaulay3  describes  him  as 
follows : 

"Of  all  the  prelates  of  the  Anglican  Church,  Laud  had 
departed  farthest  from  the  principles  of  the  Reformation, 
and  had  drawn  nearest  to  Rome.  His  theology  was  more 
remote  than  even  that  of  the  Dutch  Arminians  from  the 
theology  of  the  Calvinists.  His  passion  for  ceremonies, 
his  reverence  for  holidays,  vigils  and  sacred  places,  his  ill- 
concealed  dislike  of  the  marriage  of  ecclesiastics,  the  ardent 
and  not  altogether  disinterested  zeal  with  which  he  asserted 
the  claims  of  the  clergy  to  the  reverence  of  the  laity,  would 
have  made  him  an  object  of  aversion  to  the  Puritans,  even 
if  he  had  used  only  legal  and  gentle  means  for  the  attain- 

1  Prince's  Annals,  p.  338. 

2  Buckle,  His.  of  Civ.  in  Eng.,  Vol.  I,  p.  251. 
8  His,  of  Eng.,  Vol.  i,  Chap.  i. 


THE    BEGINNING.  7 

ment  of  his  ends.  But  his  understanding  was  narrow,  and 
his  commerce  with  the  world  had  been  small.  He  was  by 
nature  rash,  irritable,  quick  to  feel  for  his  own  dignity,  slow 
to  sympathize  with  the  sufferings  of  others,  and  prone  to 
the  error,  common  in  superstitious  men,  of  mistaking  his 
own  peevish  and  malignant  moods  for  emotions  of  pious 
zeal.  Under  his  direction  every  corner  of  the  realm  was 
subjected  to  a  constant  and  minute  inspection.  Every  little 
congregation  of  separatists  was  tracked  out  and  broken  up. 
Even  the  devotions  of  private  families  could  not  escape  the 
vigilance  of  his  spies.  Such  fear  did  his  rigor  inspire  that 
the  deadly  hatred  of  the  church,  which  festered  in  innum 
erable  bosoms,  was  generally  disguised  under  an  outward 
show  of  conformity.  On  the  very  eve  of  troubles  fatal  to 
himself  and  to  his  order,  the  bishops  of  several  extensive 
dioceses  were  able  to  report  to  him  that  not  a  single  dis 
senter  was  to  be  found  within  their  jurisdiction." 

The  Star  Chamber  and  the  High  Commission,  tri 
bunals  unknown  to  the  old  English  constitution,  de 
fied  all  law,  and  their  usurpations,  exactions  and 
excesses  have  no  parallel  in  English  history. 

The  people  found  no  relief  in  the  common  law 
courts.  These  would  have  been  powerless,  even  if 
the  judges  had  been  inclined  to  grant  relief.  But 
many  of  them  were  obsequious  and  servile  syco 
phants,  anxious  to  hold  their  places  and  eager  to  de 
base  the  courts  and  themselves  in  order  to  please 
those  in  authority.  It  is  only  by  comparing  the 
judges  of  the  reign  of  Charles  I  with  those  in  the 
reign  of  James  II,  that  anything  can  be  found  to  the 
advantage  of  the  former,  and  all  that  can  be  said  in 
their  favor  is,  that  they  did  not  quite  reach  the  low- 
water  mark  of  judicial  depravity  to  which  their  sue- 


8  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

cessors  sank  in  the  reign  of  James  II.  By  compari 
son  with  the  infamous  Jeffreys  and  Scroggs  the  worst 
of  their  predecessors  seem  to  be  somewhat  respectable. 

The  civil  and  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  vied  with 
each  other  in  their  contemptuous  disregard  of  the 
liberties  of  the  people  and  in  prostituting  the  proc 
esses  of  the  law  to  oppress  and  plunder  them.  For 
writing  or  speaking  against  the  usurpations  of  either 
civil  or  ecclesiastical  officers,  the  most  inhuman  pun 
ishments  were  inflicted.  For  such  offenses  enormous 
fines,  imprisonment,  standing  in  the  pillory,  whip 
ping,  branding,  cropping  the  ears,  and  slitting  the 
nose  were  the  common  punishments. 

The  redeeming  feature  in  this  dark  picture  is,  that 
all  these  persecutions  were  unavailing  to  quench  in 
the  English  people  the  love  of  liberty  or  to  subdue 
English  manhood. 

Under  such  galling  tyranny  we  may  well  suppose 
that  many  of  the  Puritans  in  England  began  to  think 
about  imitating  the  example  of  their  countrymen, 
who  had  sought  refuge  in  other  lands.  The  experi 
ence  of  the  Puritans  in  Holland  had  not  been  such 
as  to  induce  those  left  in  England  to  follow  their  ex 
ample  and  seek  homes  among  the  Dutch.  And  so 
they  began  to  turn  their  eyes  toward  America.  But 
getting  away  from  England  was  no  easy  matter. 
Those  who  left  were  required,  before  going,  to  ob 
tain  permission;  and  to  ask  permission  was  to  excite 
suspicion  and  to  run  the  risk  of  the  vengeance  of 
Laud,  the  Star  Chamber,  and  the  High  Commission. 
Besides  this,  none  could  obtain  permission  without 


THE    BEGINNING.  9 

taking  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and  supremacy  and 
also  an  oath  that  they  were  no  subsidy  men. 

In  reference  to  the  absence  of  any  record  of  many 
of  the  emigrants  who  left  England  and  came  to 
America  during  this  period,  Mr.  Hotten1  gives  us  an 
explanation,  which  shows  how  difficult  it  was  for 
Puritans  to  escape  from  England.  He  says  : 

"Further  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  only  the  names 
of  those  were  taken  who  legally  left  the  shores  of  England. 
At  page  142,  for  example,  and  elsewhere  throughout  the 
book,  we  find  that  the  passengers  were  examined  by  the 
minister  touching  their  conformity  to  the  church  discipline 
of  England,  and  that  they  had  taken  the  oaths  of  allegiance 
and  supremacy;  elsewhere  (p.  106,  etc.)  we  find  it  certi 
fied  that  they  were  no  subsidy  men,  that  is,  men  liable  to 
the  payment  of  a  subsidy  to  the  crown.  Among  the  thou 
sands  who  emigrated  to  New  England  it  can  not  be  doubted 
but  that  a  very  large  number  left  to  avoid  payment  of  the 
hateful  subsidy,  and  that  they  would  not  take  the  oaths  of 
allegiance  and  supremacy.  Those,  therefore,  must  have 
left  secretly,  and  of  such  no  record  would  exist." 

Cotton  Mather  tells  us2:  " There  were  many 
countermands  given  to  the  passage  of  people  that 
were  now  steering  of  this  western  course;  and  there 
was  a  sort  of  uproar  made  amongst  no  small  part  of 
the  nation,  that  these  people  should  not  be  let  go" 

Cromwell,  himself,  it  is  said,  once  attempted  to 
emigrate,  but  was  unable  to  elude  the  vigilance  of 
the  authorities,  and  so  he  remained,  to  become  the 
central  figure  of  English  history. 

1  Lists  of  Emigrants  to  America,  1600-1700,  Introduction,  p.  xxxi. 
2 Magnalia,  Vol.  i,  p.  79. 


10  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

Such  was  the  situation  when  the  Rev.  John  White, 
of  Scrooby,  began  his  efforts  to  establish  a  colony  in 
America.  We  do  not  know  very  much  about  him. 
He  was  a  Puritan  clergyman,  but  not  a  nonconform 
ist.  It  does  not  appear  that  he  was  a  profound  phi 
losopher  or  a  far-seeing  statesman.  We  have  no 
reason  to  believe  that  he  himself  had  the  slightest 
conception  that  the  movement  he  was  starting  was 
destined  to  so  marvelous  a  development;  that  the  lit 
tle  stream  so  feeble  at  its  rising  was  to  gather  volume 
and  force  till  it  became  one  of  the  world's  historic 
currents,  marking  the  beginning  of  a  new  nation  on 
a  new  continent. 

Edward  Everett,  in  his  oration  on  Dorchester,1 
gives  the  following  account  of  Mr.  White  : 

"  He  was  a  Puritan  in  principle  and  feeling,  but  not  deem 
ing  the  ceremonies  of  vital  importance,  he  adhered  to  the 
church.  But  in  periods  of  great  excitement,  moderation  is 
an  offense  in  the  eyes  of  violent  men.  The  cavalry  of  Prince 
Rupert  sacked  his  house  and  carried  off  his  library.  This 
drove  him  to  London.  He  was  a  man  of  most  excellently 
tempered  qualities,  '  grave,  yet  without  moroseness,  who 
would  willingly  contribute  his  shot  of  facetiousness  on  any 
just  occasion.'  He  was  an  indefatigable  preacher,  and 
'  had  an  excellent  faculty  in  the  clear  and  solid  interpreta 
tion  of  the  Scriptures.'  His  executive  talent  was  not  less 
remarkable,  and  he  administered  the  secular  affairs  of  his 
church  so  as  greatly  to  promote  the  temporal  prosperity  of 
the  city.  Of  two  things  not  easily  controlled  he  had,  ac 
cording  to  Fuller,  absolute  command,  '  his  own  passions  and 
the  purses  of  his  parishioners,  whom  he  could  wind  up  to 
what  point  he  pleased  on  important  occasions.'  A  gener- 

1  Orations,  etc.,  Vol.  3,  pp.  307-309. 


THE    BEGINNING.  II 

erous  use  of  his  own  means  was  the  secret  of  his  command 
of  the  means  of  others.  '  He  had  a  patriarchal  influence 
both  in  Old  and  New  England.'  I  find  no  proof  that  this 
influence  ever  ceased  over  the  hardy  young  men  who,  by 
his  encouragement,  had  settled  this  American  Dorchester  ; 
but  at  home  his  old  age  was  embittered  by  factions  and  the 
'  new  opinions  which  crept  into  his  flock.'  A  generation 
arose  which  slighted  the  crown  of  his  old  age ;  and  of  this 
he  was  '  sadly  and  silently  sensible ' ;  sadly,  as  was  natural 
in  a  man  who  had  reaped  ingratitude  where  he  sowed  bene 
fits  ;  silently,  as  became  the  self-respect  of  a  proud,  good 
conscience.  He  was  one  of  the  most  learned  and  influen 
tial  of  that  famous  assembly  of  divines  at  Westminster, 
whose  catechisms,  after  two  centuries,  remain  accredited 
manuals  of  Christian  belief  to  millions  on  millions  in  the  old 
world  and  the  new.  The  biographer  of  the  '  Worthies  of 
England,'  after  sketching  his  admirable  character  of  our 
ever-memorable  founder,  expresses  the  hope  that  Solomon's 
observation  of  the  poor  wise  man  who  saved  the  little  city, 
'yet  no  man  remembered  him,'  will  not  be  verified  of  '  Dor 
chester  in  England,  in  relation  to  this  their  deceased  pastor.' 
He  lies  buried,  without  a  stone  to  mark  the  spot,  in  the 
porch  of  St.  Peter's  church;  and  if  the  good  old  patriarch 
should  be  forgotten  in  the  Dorchester  of  Old  England,  let 
it  be  some  atonement  to  his  memory  that  here  in  New 
England,  after  a  lapse  of  two  centuries  and  a  quarter,  he  is 
still  held  in  pious  and  grateful  remembrance. 

"Mr.  White's  connection  with  New  England  preceded 
by  several  years  the  settlement  of  our  ancient  town.  He  was 
the  chief  promoter  of  the  attempt  to  establish  a  colony  at 
Cape  Ann  under  Conant;  and  after  its  failure  there,  his  en 
couragement  and  aid  caused  the  transfer  of  what  remained 
of  it  to  Salem,  where  it  became  the  germ  of  a  permanent 
settlement.  It  was  Mr.  White  who  brought  the  adventurers 
of  the  west  of  England  into  connection  with  the  men  of  in- 


12  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

fluence  in  London,  in  Lincolnshire,  and  the  other  eastern 
counties,  and  formed  with  them  the  ever-memorable  com 
pany,  which,  under  a  charter  from  Charles  I,  ingrafted  En- 
dicott's  settlement  at  Salem  upon  the  languishing  enterprise 
of  the  single-hearted,  persevering,  and  ill-rewarded  Conant; 
and  finally  fitted  out  that  noble  expedition  in  1630,  under 
the  great  and  good  Winthrop,  which  put  the  finishing  hand 
to  the  work,  and  consolidated  the  foundation  of  Massachu 
setts.  In  all  the  labors  and  counsels  tending  to  this  end, 
John  White,  of  Dorchester,  appears  to  have  been  the  person 
of  greatest  activity  and  influence ;  and  when  all  was  pre 
pared  for  the  expedition,  and  the  Arbella  and  her  chosen 
company  were  ready  to  set  sail,  the  '  Humble  Request,'  as 
it  is  called,  addressed  to  the  churches  of  England,  setting 
forth,  in  language  which  can  scarcely  yet  be  read  without 
tears,  the  motives  and  feelings  which  influenced  the  pious 
adventurers,  is  ascribed  to  his  pen." 

It  occurred  to  Mr.  White  to  establish  a  settlement 
in  America,  whereby  the  planters  already  there  and 
the  sailors  who  went  there,  some  of  whom  were  his 
parishioners,  should  not  want  for  orthodox  religious 
instruction.  To  carry  out  this  scheme  a  company 
was  formed  and  a  small  colony  was  sent  to  America; 
but  discouragement  and  failure  followed,  and  in  a  few 
years  the  settlement  went  to  pieces.  Some  of  the  colo 
nists,  however,  who  had  settled  at  what  is  now  Salem, 
said  that  they  would  remain  if  they  could  get  help 
from  England,  and,  hearing  this,  Mr.  White  promised 
that,  if  they  would  remain,  he  would  send  them  needed 
supplies  and  ' '  provide  a  patent  for  them, ' '  and  he  im 
mediately  went  about  the  business  with  renewed  zeal. 

We  can  not,  of  course,  tell  just  what  ideas  were  in 
the  minds  of  the  men  who  now  lent  their  aid  to  the 


THE    BEGINNING.  13 

enterprise.  The  account  which  the  pious  Mr.  White 
has  given  us  does  not  throw  a  great  deal  of  light  upon 
the  subject.  Perhaps  he  had  no  other  motives  than 
those  expressed  by  him  in  the  "  Planters'  Plea."  In  this 
he  emphatically  asserts  that  "  the  suspicious  and 
scandalous  reports  raysed  upon  these  gentlemen  and 
their  friends  (as  if,  under  color  of  planting  a  colony, 
they  intended  to  rayse  and  erect  a  seminary  of  faction 
and  separation)  are  nothing  else  but  the  fruits  of 
jealousie  of  some  distempered  minde,  or,  which  is 
worse,  perhaps  savour  of  a  desperate  malicious  plot  of 
men  ill-affected  to  religion,  endeavoring,  by  casting 
the  undertakers  into  the  jealousie  of  State,  to  shut 
them  out  of  those  advantages  which  otherwise  they 
doe  and  might  expect  from  the  Countenance  of  Author- 
itie."  Thomas  Dudley,  in  his  letter  of  March  12, 
1630,  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln,1  gives  this  account 
of  the  origin  of  the  founding  of  the  Massachusetts 
colony: 

"Touching  the  plantation  which  wee  here  have  begun,  it 
fell  out  thus.  About  the  year  1627  some  friends,  beeing  to- 
geather  in  Lincolnsheire,  fell  into  discourse  about  New  Eng 
land  and  the  plantinge  of  the  Gospell  there;  and  after  some 
deliberation  we  imparted  our  reasons,  by  letters  &  mes 
sages,  to  some  in  London  &  the  west  country,  where  it 
was  likewise  deliberately  thought  upon,  and  at  length  with 
often  negotiation  soe  ripened  that  in  the  year  1628  [1629] 
wee  procured  a  patent,  etc." 

In  the  same  letter  he  also  denounces  as  u  false  and 
scandalous"  the  reports  that  the  colonists  were  "  ill- 

1  Force's  His.  Tracts,  Vol.  2;  Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts , 
P.  303- 


14  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

affected  to  our  state   at  home."    To  emphasize  this 
he  adds: 

'  'And  for  our  further  cleareinge,  I  truely  affirme,  that  I  know 
noe  one  person  who  came  over  with  us  the  last  yeare  to  bee 
altered  in  his  judgment  and  affection,  eyiher  in  ecclesiastical? 
or  civill  respects,  since  our  comeinge  hether.  But  wee  doe 
continue  to  pray  dailey  for  our  sovereaign  lord  the  Kinge,  his 
Queene,  the  Prince,  the  royal  blood,  the  counsaile  and  whole 
state,  as  dutye  binds  us  to  doe,  and  reason  persuades  others 
to  believe.  For  how  ungodly  and  unthankfull  should  wee  bee, 
if  wee  should  not  thus  doe,  who  come  hether  by  vertue  of  his 
Majesty's  letters-patent,  and  under  his  gratious  protection, 
under  which  shelter  wee  hope  to  live  safely  and  from  whose 
kingdome  and  subjects  wee  now  have  received  and  hereafter 
expect  reliefe." 

The  most  charitable  explanation  of  this  letter  is  that 
it  was  written  with  many  mental  reservations  and 
under  the  conviction  that  it  was  not  prudent  to  dis 
close  fully  all  the  motives  of  the  colonists,  as  this 
would  be  certain  to  invite  the  persecution  here  which 
they  had  left  England  to  escape.  That  many  of  the 
emigrants  were  in  haste  to  get  away,  and  that  they 
deemed  it  the  wiser  course  not  to  avow  all  the  ob 
jects  they  had  in  view  in  leaving,  is  apparent  from 
Johnson's  "  Wonder-working  Providence."1  "And. 
now  I  could  wish,"  he  says,  u  our  brethren  in  England 
would  not  be  angry  with  us  for  making  such  haste. 
Brethren  you  know  how  the  case  stood  with  our 
Ministers,  as  it  was  with  Gidion,  who  could  thresh 
out  no  Corne,  but  he  must  doe  it  secretly  to  hide  it 
from  the  Midianites,  who  spread  the  land  like  Grass- 

iMass.  His.  Coll.,  2  Ser.,  Vol.  4,  p.  23. 


THE    BEGINNING.  15 

hoppers;  no  more  could  they  thresh  and  clean  up 
any  Wheate  for  the  Lord's  Garner,  but  the  Prelates 
would  presently  be  upon  their  backs  and  plow  long 
furrowes  there." 

At  any  rate  ' '  the  business  came  to  agitation  afresh 
in  London,"  and  soon  other  men  appeared  upon  the 
scene,  some  of  whom  are  historic  figures,  who  began 
to  interest  themselves  in  the  furtherance  of  Mr. 
White's  scheme,  and  who,  it  is  pretty  certain,  had 
other  aims  in  view  than  the  conversion  of  the  savages 
in  America,  or  that  the  planters  there  and  the  sailors 
who  went  there  might  not  want  for  orthodox  religious 
instruction. 

In  casting  about  to  find  persons  willing  to  go,  "it 
fell  out  that,  amongst  others,  they  lighted  at  last  on 
Master  Endicott,  a  man  well  known  to  divers  persons 
of  good  note."  A  grant  of  some  kind  was  procured 
on  March  19, 1628,  from  the  Council  for  NewEngland 
which  had  a  prior  right  to  the  land  whereon  it  was 
desired  to  plant  the  colony,  and  Endicott,  with  a  few 
others,  went  over,  arriving  in  America  in  September 
following. 

Precisely  by  what  means  the  grant  was  obtained 
from  the  Council  we  do  not  know.  No  separate  record 
of  it  is  extant,  and  we  know  what  it  was  only  from 
the  recitals  in  the  charter  granted  by  King  Charles  I, 
and  that  the  date  of  it  was  March  19,  1628.  The 
grant  was  made  to  six  persons,  including  Endicott. 

But  the  Council  had  met  with  continued  disaster 
in  its  attempt  to  carry  out  the  purpose  of  its  organiza 
tion  and  was  on  its  last  legs.  Some  better  author 
ity  was  desired  than  the  grant  already  obtained,  which 


1 6  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

could  not  transfer  any  governmental  powers.  To 
obtain  these  it  was  necessary  to  get  a  charter.  Coke 
and  others  opposed  the  one  first  proposed,  as  grant 
ing  a  monopoly.  It  is  said  that  the  charter  granted 
cost  two  thousand  pounds,  besides  the  use  of  all  the 
influence  that  the  most  potent  of  the  Puritans  in  Eng 
land  could  bring  to  bear.  Finally  an  acceptable 
charter  was  prepared,  and  on  March  4,  1629,  it  re 
ceived  the  royal  signature.  The  charter  was  granted 
to  twenty-six  persons,  named  therein,  incorporating 
them  into  a  company  under  the  name  of  "The  Gov 
ernor  and  Company  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  in 
New  England."  In  anticipation  of  getting  it,  Endi- 
cott  and  a  party  of  emigrants  had  already  gone  to 
prepare  the  way  and  had  established  a  settlement  at 
Salem. 

The  next  question  was,  whether  the  charter  could 
legally  be  transferred  to  America.  On  August  26, 
1629,  Richard  Saltonstall,  Thomas  Dudley,  John 
Winthrop  and  other  men  of  fortune  and  distinction 
had  bound  themselves  by  an  agreement  made  at  Cam 
bridge  that  if  before  the  last  of  the  following  Sep 
tember  an  order  of  court  could  be  procured  legally 
transferring  "the  whole  government,  together  with 
the  patent  for  the  said  Plantation,"  they  and  their 
families  would  "embark  for  the  said  Plantation  by 
the  first  of  March  next,  at  such  port  or  ports  of  this 
land  as  shall  be  agreed  upon  by  the  Company,  to  the 
End  to  pass  the  Seas  (under  God's  protection)  to  in 
habit  and  continue  in  New  England."1  But  no 
order  of  court  was  obtained.  What  legal  advice 

1  Young's  Chronicles  of  Mass.,  p.  279. 


THE    BEGINNING.  17 

was  secured  is  not  known,  but  it  is  certain  that 
the  parties  interested  were  not  then  entirely  clear 
in  their  own  minds  about  their  right  to  transfer  the 
government  and  charter  to  New  England,  for,  at  one 
of  their  meetings,  it  was  resolved  "to  carry  this  busi 
ness  secretly  that  the  same  be  not  divulged."1  After 
further  discussion  general  consent  was  given  "  by 
erection  of  hands." 

It  was  next  determined  that  the  government  of 
persons  should  be  held  in  New  England,  that  it 
should  be  continued  there  by  Capt.  Endicott,  and 
that  the  government  of  trade  and  merchandise  should 
be  in  London.2 

An  inventory  was  made  of  things  ' c  to  provide  to 
send  for  New  England,"  including  "  ministers"  and 
"  patent  under  seale."3  Endicott  had  gone  on  June 
20,  1628.  On  March  25,  1629,  the  second  expedi 
tion  set  sail  from  England,  conveying  300  passengers 
and  two  ministers.4  Before  going  John  Winthrop 
was  chosen  governor  of  the  company  with  a  deputy 
governor  and  eighteen  assistants. 

An  address,5  published  by  the  emigrants  on  the 
eve  of  their  departure,  in  which  they  referred  to  the 
Church  of  England  as  "  our  dear  mother,"  has  been 
sometimes  quoted  as  proof  of  hypocrisy  on  their  part, 
and  of  their  intention  to  conceal  their  design  to 
secede  from  it  on  their  arrival  in  America,  but  it  is 
susceptible  of  a  different  construction. 

xMass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  49. 
8  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  56. 
*Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  24. 

4  Mem.  Hist.  Boston,  Vol.  i,  p.  98. 

5  The  Humble  Request,  Young's  Chronicles,  293. 

PUR.  REP. — 2 


1 8  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

The  religious  views  of  the  emigrants  must  have 
been  well  known,  and  it  would  have  been  useless  to 
attempt  to  conceal  them.  It  is  far  more  reasonable 
to  infer  that,  with  all  its  faults,  the  church  of  their 
ancestors  was  still  dear  to  them,  and  that,  in  the  sad 
moments  of  parting  from  home  and  kindred,  the 
harsh  recollections  of  former  persecutions  gave  way 
to  tender  memories.  The  address  has  even  given 
rise  to  some  question  as  to  whether  the  colonists  were 
of  the  Church  of  England  or  not.  But,  as  stated  by 
Hutchinson,  "  however  problematical  it  may  be  what 
they  were  while  they  remained  in  England,  they  left 
no  room  for  doubt  after  they  arrived  in  America." 

It  has  been  conjectured  also  that  the  emigrants,  be 
fore  leaving  England,  had  formed  the  design  of  set 
ting  up  in  America  a  government  of  their  own,  and, 
on  this  assumption,  some  have  accused  them  of 
craftily  concealing  their  design,  while  others  have 
supposed  them  to  have  been  very  far-seeing.  Both 
conclusions  are  probably  erroneous.  Undoubtedly 
the  emigrants  anticipated  that  it  would  be  necessary 
for  them  to  have  some  kind  of  civil  government  in 
their  future  home.  To  enable  them  to  establish  such 
a  government  was  one  of  the  objects  for  which  the 
charter  was  asked  and  granted.  But  there  is  no  evi 
dence  that  they  themselves  contemplated  in  the  be 
ginning  such  a  government  as  was  afterwards  de 
veloped.  That  was  the  outgrowth  of  circumstances 
and  opportunities  not  then  foreseen  by  any  one. 

Winthrop  sailed  from  Yarmouth  in  the  Arbella  on 
April  8,  1 630, and  reached  Salem  on  June  12.  Some 
of  the  company's  emigrants  had  already  arrived  and 


THE    BEGINNING.  19 

others  came  later,  so  that,  before  winter,  over  one 
thousand  in  all  had  come.1  It  is  estimated  by  Mr. 
Fiske  that  two-thirds  of  these  were  from  the  eastern 
portion  of  England.2  Some  came,  as  appears  from 
the  " Planters'  Plea,"  from  the  west  of  England.  John 
son3  says  that  "the  Wonder-working  Providence  of 
Sions  Savour  appears  much  in  gathering  together  the 
stones  to  build  up  the  walls  of  Jerusalem  (that  his 
Sion  maybe  surrounded  with  Bulwarkes  and  Towers) 
and  that  with  a  whispering  word  in  the  eares  of  his 
servants  he  crosses  the  Angles  of  England  from  Corne- 
wall  to  Kent,  from  Dover  to  Barwick,  not  leaving 
out  Scotland  and  Wales."  Of  those  that  came,  not 
more  than  twenty  were  members  of  the  company. 

What  an  English  historian4  says  of  the  character  of 
the  immigrants  who  had  exchanged  the  pleasant  fields 
and  homes  of  England  for  these  wild  shores  will  surely 
not  be  regarded  as  "ancestor- worship."  "They 
were  not,"  he  says,  "broken  men,  adventurers, 
bankrupts,  criminals,  or  simply  poor  men  and  arti 
sans.  They  were,  in  great  part,  men  of  the  profes 
sional  and  middle  classes  ;  some  of  them  men  of  large 
landed  estates ;  some  zealous  clergymen,  *  *  * 
some  shrewd  London  lawyers,  or  young  scholars 
from  Oxford  *  *  *  driven  forth  from  their  father 
land  not  by  earthly  want,  or  by  the  greed  of  gold,  or 
by  the  lust  of  adventure,  but  by  the  fear  of  God  and 
the  zeal  for  a  godly  worship." 

Among   those   thus  gathered  in  the  New  World 

1  Hutchinson  says  "  above  1,500  passengers." 

2  Beginnings  of  Neiv  England,  p.  63. 

8  Wonder-working  Providence:  Mass.  His.  Coll.,  2  Ser.,  Vol.  4,  p.  23. 
4  Green,  Short  History  of  the  English  People,  p.  498. 


20  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

were  men  noted  in  its  history.  There  were  women 
also  worthy  to  be  remembered.  Some  of  them 
"came  from  a  paradise  of  plenty  and  pleasure"  in 
England  "  into  a  wilderness  of  wants."  There  were 
others  too  who  had  been  accustomed  to  the  comforts 
and  luxuries  of  English  life,  and  who  were  worthy  to 
be  the  wives  and  mothers  of  the  men  whose  names 
have  been  so  deeply  graven  in  history. 

But  in  this  historic  group  there  are  two  figures 
standing  out  in  bold  relief.  One  is  Winthrop,  wise, 
conscientious,  of  ten  honored  by  his  fellow-citizens,  al 
ways  discharging  his  duties  with  dignity  and  scrupu 
lous  fidelity.  He  had  been  trained  in  England  as  a 
lawyer  •  when  he  left  there  he  was  forty-two  years 
old.  Through  all  its  troubles,  while  he  was  at  the 
helm,  he  guided  the  ship  of  state  with  consummate 
skill.  There  was  in  his  character  not  the  least  trace 
of  dissimulation  or  demagogy.  Though  never  ag 
gressive,  he  was  resolute  in  maintaining  his  convic 
tions  of  right.  When  the  freemen  clamored  to  strip 
the  assistants  of  their  right  to  cast  a  negative  vote,  he 
stood  out  against  them,  without  regard  to  the  effect 
upon  his  own  popularity  with  them.  When  the 
clergy  sought  to  shake  off  responsibility  to  the  civil 
magistrates,  he  was  as  firm  and  unyielding  in  resist 
ing  their  demands  as  he  was  in  resisting  the  demands 
of  the  freemen. 

Once,  and  only  once,  he  was  called  upon  by  the 
General  Court  to  render  an  account  of  his  receipts 
and  expenditures  as  governor.  He  did  so,  showing 
that  he  had  expended  for  the  commonwealth  more 
than  a  thousand  pounds  in  excess  of  his  receipts,  and, 


THE    BEGINNING.  21 

with  modest  dignity,  he  added  this  conclusion  to  his 
report : 

1 '  I  conclude  with  this  one  request,  which  in  justice  may 
not  be  denied  me,  that  as  it  stands  upon  record  that  upon 
the  discharge  of  my  office  I  was  called  to  account,  so  this 
declaration  may  be  recorded  also,  lest  hereafter,  when  I 
shall  be  forgotten,  some  blemish  may  lie  upon  my  posterity, 
when  there  shall  be  nothing  to  clear  it." 

More  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  have  rolled 
by  since  this  declaration  was  made,  and  yet  Win- 
throp  is  not  forgotten,  nor  has  any  blemish  been 
found  upon  his  record  for  his  posterity  to  clear  away. 

The  other  figure  is  that  of  Endicott.  Bold,  im 
petuous,  of  unflinching  convictions  and  indomitable 
will,  he  too  was  destined  to  wield  great  influence  in 
the  colony. 

Mr.  Fiske,1  coupling  him  with  Norton,  styles  them 
4 '  two  as  arrant  fanatics  as  ever  drew  breath  " ;  and  Mr. 
Brooks  Adams,  describing  him  as  he  sat  at  the  trial 
of  Wenlock  Christison,  smiting  the  table  in  anger 
and  upbraiding  the  judges  for  their  timidity  and  urg 
ing  them  to  pass  the  sentence  of  death,  gives  us  the 
grim  picture  of  a  man  wearing  a  harsh  face,  looking 
down  from  under  a  black  skull-cap,  with  determined 
mouth  and  massive  jaw,  u  almost  heroic  in  his  fero 
cious  bigotry  and  daring." 

This  is  not  a  pleasant  picture  to  look  upon.  One 
who  has  read  the  "Emancipation  of  Massachusetts" 
can  not  help  feeling  that  the  artist  who  drew  the  pict 
ure  was  not  less  ferocious  than  the  figure  he  paints  for 

1  Beginnings  of  New  England,  179, 


22  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

us.  Still,  no  matter  how  we  draw  the  picture — how  we 
arrange  the  colors  and  dispose  the  lights  and  shades — 
we  can  not  make  a  picture  of  Endicott  as  lovable,  as 
pleasant  to  look  upon,  as  that  of  Winthrop;  the  two 
were  of  altogether  different  types.  But  surely  we 
can  find  in  Endicott' s  character  something  to  relieve 
the  harshness  of  the  portraits  which  Mr.  Fiske  and 
Mr.  Adams  have  given  us. 

No  one  ever  questioned  Endicott's  honesty,  his 
courage,  his  frankness,  or  his  unselfish  devotion  to 
public  interests  as  he  understood  them.  These  are 
among  the  noblest  of  manly  qualities. 

It  is  quite  easy,  looking  back  over  two  hundred 
years,  with  the  increased  knowledge  acquired  in  that 
time,  to  pick  out  the  faults  and  mistakes  of  men  then 
on  the  stage,  and  it  is  not  very  difficult  to  persuade 
ourselves  that  some  of  them  were  " fanatics."  And 
yet  it  is  not  always  so  easy  to  determine  whether  the 
world  would  have  been  better  off  without  them  than 
with  them. 

In  ordinary  times,  when  the  affairs  of  state  are 
moving  along  smoothly,  men  like  Polonius  seem  to 
be  most  popular  with  the  people.  But  there  are  times 
when  men  of  intense  convictions,  great  courage,  un 
tiring  energy,  and  resolute  determination  are  the 
leaders  most  needed.  In  their  excess  of  zeal  they 
sometimes  do  things  that  more  amiable  men  would 
not  do.  But  when  great  reforms  are  to  be  pushed, 
when  great  revolutions  are  to  be  fought  out,  such  men 
achieve  results  which  would  be  impossible  without 
-them. 

The  emergencies  which  call  such  men  to  the  front 


THE    BEGINNING.  23 

usually  require  them  to  decide  promptly  and  to  act 
boldly,  and  the  men  we  want  in  such  emergencies 
are  very  apt  sometimes  to  act  arbitrarily.  Grant  did 
not  hesitate  when  he  banished  the  Jews  from  his  mil 
itary  department  ;  neither  did  Endicott  when  he  sent 
the  Brownes  back  to  England. 

We  should  not,  in  this  age,  like  to  see  another 
Cromwell  in  England  turning  parliament  out  of 
doors  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  But  without 
Cromwell  and  his  psalm-singing  hosts  at  Marston 
Moor,  English  history  and  English  liberty  would 
probably  be  far  different  from  what  they  are  to-day. 

John  Brown  at  Harper's  Ferry  seems  to  be  a  typ 
ical  fanatic,  wasting  human  life  in  a  hopeless  and  id 
iotic  undertaking.  But  who  can  say  now  how  much 
he  did  toward  awakening  the  nation  out  of  its  leth 
argy  and  breaking  the  spell  in  which  slavery  had 
bound  it? 

Endicott,  tearing  the  cross  from  the  British  flag 
because  it  was  a  symbol  of  Popery,  may  seem  to  us 
now  to  have  acted  very  foolishly  and  fanatically. 
That  he  and  his  fellow  Puritans  committed  a  griev 
ous  mistake  in  their  persecution  of  the  Baptists  and 
the  Quakers,  most  of  us  will  freely  admit.  But,  after  all 
these  concessions,  the  question  remains,  whether  the 
commonwealth  would  have  been  better  off  without 
Endicott  than  with  him. 

He  had  gone  with  the  first  little  company  sent  by 
John  White  to  America  before  Winthrop  had 
thought  of  going.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  Win 
throp  would  have  undertaken  what  Endicott  did. 

During  Endicott's  life,  the  little  colony  was  men- 


24  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

aced  with  great  dangers  and  difficulties  within  and 
without.  It  was  torn  with  internal  dissensions. 
There  were  bloody  conflicts  with  the  Indians  who 
stood  on  the  borders,  ever  threatening  slaughter  and 
desolation.  Powerful  foes  in  England  were  con 
stantly  scheming  for  the  destruction  of  the  infant 
commonwealth.  One  after  another  of  the  Ameri 
can  colonial  governments  went  down.  The  Massa 
chusetts  commonwealth  alone  faced  the  King  of 
England  to  the  last  and  yielded  only  to  overpower 
ing  force. 

In  all  these  conflicts  and  dangers  it  is  easy  to  see 
the  figure  of  Endicott,  to  discern  the  influence  of  his 
iron  resolution  and  dauntless  courage,  and,  despite 
all  his  faults,  to  perceive  his  utter  abandonment 
of  all  thoughts  of  self-interest,  and  his  unselfish  and 
untiring  devotion  to  what  he  sincerely  considered  the 
welfare  of  his  fellow-colonists.  The  secretary  of 
state,  under  King  Charles  II,  wrote  a  letter  in  which 
he  said,  "  the  King  would  take  it  well  if  the  people 
would  leave  out  Mr.  Endicott  from  the  place  of  Gov 
ernor."  It  may  be  that,  without  Endicott,  a  repub 
lic  would  have  come  sometime — but  when?  And 
what  kind  of  republic  would  have  come?  So  that, 
after  all,  perhaps  it  may  be  that  the  considerate  judg 
ment  of  posterity  will  accord  with  that  of  Palfrey,1 
who  says  that  "New  England,  when  she  counts 
up  the  benefactors  eminently  worthy  of  her  grateful 
and  reverent  remembrance,  can  never  omit  his 


name." 


Between   the  colonists   and   Old  England,  which 
1  Vol.  2,  P.  600. 


THE    BEGINNING.  25 

the  most  of  them  had  looked  upon  for  the  last  time 
when  they  left  its  shores,  were  three  thousand  miles 
of  ocean.  They  had  left  dear  homes  and  kindred 
and  old  associations,  around  which  clung  many  ten 
der  memories.  Before  them  was  a  vast  continent 
and  dense  forests  filled  with  savage  beasts  and  sav 
age  men.  A  New  England  winter  was  coming  on 
and  homes  were  to  be  hewn  out  of  the  wilderness, 
fields  were  to  be  opened  and  tilled,  food  and  cloth 
ing  were  to  be  provided,  and  in  this  "  corner  of  the 
earth"  a  government  was  to  be  established. 

A  few  white  men  had  preceded  the  colonists  of  the 
Massachusetts  company  and  had  already  made  open 
ings  in  the  otherwise  unbroken  solitude  around  them. 
William  Blackstone  had  settled  at  Shawmut  and 
"claimed  the  whole  peninsula  upon  which  Boston  is 
built  because  he  was  the  first  that  slept  upon  it." 
Samuel  Maverick  was  living  upon  Noddles  Island, 
where  he  had  built  a  little  fort  armed  with  four  cannon. 
There  were  also  a  few  families  at  Mattapan  (Dor 
chester),  and  a  few  on  the  north  side  of  the  Charles 
river  (Charlestown),  who  had  moved  there  from 
Salem.  There  were  also  at  the  same  time,  or  soon 
after,  some  families  at  Saugus  (afterward  Lynn). 

On  June  17,  1630,  five  days  after  the  arrival  of 
Winthrop  at  Salem,  he  and  some  of  the  principal 
colonists  set  out  through  the  woods  ' '  to  look  out  for 
a  convenient  place  for  their  chief  town,"  but  they 
could  not  agree  as  to  the  location,  and  settled  at 
various  places,  so  that  before  the  following  winter 
there  were  settlements  at  Salem,  Boston,  Charles- 


26  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

town,  Mattapan  (Dorchester),  Watertown,  Roxbury, 
Mystic  and  Saugus  (Lynn.) 

The  colonists  had  all  that  they  could  do  for  several 
months  after  their  arrival  to  provide  shelter  and 
food  for  the  coming  winter,  but  they  were  ill-pre 
pared  for  it  when  it  came.  The  weather  became  very 
cold  on  December  24,  and  we  may  well  believe  what 
Hutchinson  says  that  "  such  a  Christmas  eve  they  had 
never  seen  before."  Their  provisions  ran  short,  and 
even  those  who  were  in  better  circumstances  than  the 
others  were  compelled  to  live  chiefly  on  clams  and 
roasted  acorns,  and  for  several  months  their  chief  con 
cern  was  to  keep  themselves  alive.  Many  succumbed 
to  their  hardships  and  sickened  and  died,  but  those  who 
were  left  were  not  of  a  kind  to  abandon  the  enter 
prise  upon  which  they  had  set  their  hearts  and  staked 
their  fortunes  and  their  lives.  They  had  taken  the 
most  difficult  step  when  they  had  made  a  beginning. 


II 

MAKING  A  GOVERNMENT 

THE  colonists  undoubtedly  had  considered  the 
establishment  of  a  government  of  some  kind  before 
they  left  England.  Undoubtedly  also  they  were 
confronted  on  their  arrival  here  with  many  new 
conditions  which  would  necessarily  have  to  be  taken 
into  consideration  in  any  kind  of  government  that 
they  might  attempt  to  frame  and  upon  whatever 
foundation  it  might  be  established. 

None  of  the  colonists  at  that  time  seem  to  have  en 
tertained  any  idea  of  basing  their  government  upon 
any  other  foundation  than  the  charter  which  had 
been  granted  by  King  Charles  I.  They  would  have 
preferred  a  broader  one  if  they  could  have  obtained  it, 
but  the  one  they  had  was  as  liberal  as  they  could  get, 
and  the  only  thing  to  do  was  to  make  the  best  of  it. 

But  in  the  climate  of  New  England  the  charter 
took  on  a  marvelous  growth,  of  which,  at  the  time 
it  was  granted,  neither  Charles  I  nor  those  to  whom 
it  was  granted  could  have  had  the  slightest  concep 
tion — more  marvelous  because  of  what  was  grafted 
upon  it  after  it  was  transplanted  here. 

Whether  the  company  had  any  legal  right  to  trans 
fer  the  corporation,  charter  and  all,  from  England  to 
America,  is  one  of  the  questions  about  which  there 
has  been  dispute  from  that  time  to  this.  But,  whether 

(27) 


28  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

lawfully  transferred  or  not,  the  charter  was  now  on 
this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  very  fortunately  for  the  col 
onists,  as  events  subsequently  proved,  and  whatever 
authority  the  members  of  the  company  had,  or  ever 
acquired,  from  either  the  King  or  the  Parliament  of 
England,  to  set  up  any  kind  of  government  in  America, 
was  contained  in  this  document.  As  the  colonists 
construed  it,  the  authority  it  conferred  was  very  ex 
tensive,  and  this  is  the  reason  why  those  who  acted, 
or  professed  to  act,  under  it,  clung  to  it  so  long  and 
so  tenaciously  and  parted  with  it  so  reluctantly. 

The  evolution  of  the  company  from  what  some 
have  termed  a  mere  trading  corporation  into  a  great 
body  politic,  has  given  rise  to  profound  discussions 
and  is  full  of  interest  to  all  historical  and  political 
students.  The  men  who  procured  the  charter  were 
sagacious  and  far-seeing,  but  it  is  doubtful  if,  when 
they  obtained  it,  they  imagined  that  it  conferred  all 
the  powers  that  were  afterwards  claimed  and  exer 
cised  under  it.  Certainly  Charles  I  never  dreamed 
of  granting  such  powers.  Some  of  its  provisions,  it 
is  true,  were  similar  to  those  contained  in  the  charter 
of  the  East  India  Company  and  of  other  trading  cor 
porations.  It  was  understood  to  confer  upon  the 
grantees  the  absolute  proprietary  right,  subject  to 
certain  specified  reservations  as  to  minerals,  etc., 
in  favor  of  the  Crown,  to  all  the  territory  included 
in  the  grant.  Some  of  the  powers  granted,  how 
ever,  were  so  extensive  and  so  loosely  limited  that 
much  was  left  to  construction.1 

1  Copies   of  the  charter  maybe  found  in  Hutchinson's  Coll,,  1-24;   I 
Mass.  Rec.,  3-20; Charters  and  Constitutions  (Poore),  pp.  932-942. 


MAKING   A    GOVERNMENT.  29 

Among  other  powers  granted  to  the  corporation 
was  the  power  to  elect  a  governor,  a  deputy  governor 
and  eighteen  assistants,  to  be  chosen  by  the  freemen 
of  the  company.  They  were  to  meet  once  a  month, 
or  oftener  if  they  saw  fit,  and  seven  or  more  of  the 
assistants,  together  with  the  governor  or  the  deputy 
governor,  were  to  constitute  a  quorum.  Four  times 
in  each  year  "one  greate  generall  and  solempe  as- 
semblie"  was  to  be  called  together,  "  which  foure  gen 
erall  assemblies  shall  be  stiled  and  called  the  foure 
greate  and  generall  Courts  of  the  saide  Company." 
These  were  authorized  to  admit  new  freemen  and 

' '  To  make  Lawes  and  Ordinances  for  the  Good  and  Wel 
fare  of  the  saide  Company,  and  for  the  Government  and 
ordering  of  the  saide  Lands  and  Plantation,  and  the  People 
inhabiting  and  to  inhabit  the  same,  as  to  them  from  tyme  to 
tyme  shall  be  thought  meete,  soe  as  such  Laws  and  Ordinances 
be  not  contrarie  or  repugnant  to  the  Laws  and  Statuts  of  this 
our  Realme  of  England." 

Still  more  specific  authority  was  given  the  General 
Court  in  a  subsequent  portion  of  the  charter, 

"To  make,  ordeine,  and  establishe  all  Manner  of  whole 
some  and  reasonable  Orders,  Lawes,  Statutes,  and  Ordi 
nances,  Directions,  and  Instructions,  not  contrarie  to  the 
Laws  of  this  our  Realme  of  England,  as  well  for  setling  of 
the  Formes,  and  Ceremonies  of  Government  and  Magis 
tracy,  fitt  and  necessary  for  the  said  Plantation,  and  the  In 
habitants  there,  and  for  nameing  and  stiling  of  all  sorts  of 
Officers,  both  superior  and  inferior,  which  they  shall  fmde 
needefull  for  that  Government  and  Plantation,  and  the  dis 
tinguishing  and  setting  forth  of  the  severall  duties,  Powers, 


3O  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

and  Lymytts  of  every  such  Office  and  Place,  and  the  Formes 
of  such  Oathes  warrantable  by  the  Lawes  and  Statutes  of 
this  our  Realme  of  England,  as  shall  be  respectivelie  minis- 
tred  unto  them  for  the  Execution  of  the  said  severall 
Offices  and  Places;  as  also,  for  the  disposing  and  ordering 
of  the  Elections  of  such  of  the  said  officers  as  shalbe  annuall, 
and  of  such  others  as  shalbe  to  succeede  in  case  of  Death 
or  Removeall,  and  ministring  the  said  Oathes  to  the  newe 
elected  Officers,  and  for  Impositions  of  lawfull  Fynes,  Mulcts, 
Imprisonment,  or  other  lawfull  Correction,  according  to  the 
Course  of  other  Corporations  in  this  our  Realrne  of  England, 
and  for  the  directing,  ruling,  and  disposeing  of  all  other 
Matters  and  Thinges,  whereby  our  said  People,  Inhabitants 
there,  may  be  soe  religiously,  peaceablie,  and  civilly  gov 
erned,  as  their  good  Life  and  orderlie  Conversation,  maie 
wynn  and  incite  the  Natives  of  Country,  to  the  Knovvledg 
and  Obedience  of  the  onlie  true  God  and  Savior  of  Man- 
kinde,  and  the  Christian  Fayth,  which  in  our  Royall  Inten 
tion,  and  the  Adventurers  free  Profession,  is  the  principal! 
Ende  of  this  Plantation." 

The  officers  of  the  company  were  given 

"  Full  and  Absolute  Power  and  Authoritie  to  correct,  pun- 
ishe,  pardon,  governe,  and  rule  all  such  the  Subjects  of  Us, 
our  Heiress  and  Successors,  as  shall  from  Tyme  to  tyme 
adventure  themselves  in  any  Voyadge  thither  or  from  thence, 
or  that  shall  at  any  tyme  hereafter,  inhabite  within  the 
Precincts  and  Partes  of  Newe  England  aforesaid,  according 
to  his  Orders,  Lawes,  Ordinances,  Instructions,  and  Direc 
tions  aforesaid,  not  being  repugnant  to  the  Lawes  and  Stat 
utes  of  our  Realme  of  England  as  aforesaid." 

Authority  was  given  also 

"To  incounter,  expulse,   repell,  and  resist  by  Force  of 


MAKING   A    GOVERNMENT.  31 

Armes,  as  well  by  Sea  as  by  Lande,  and  by  all  fitting  Waies 
and  Meanes  whatsoever,  all  such  Person  and  Persons,  as 
shall  at  any  Tyme  hereafter,  attempt  or  enterprise  the  De 
struction,  Invasion,  Detriment,  or  Annoyance  to  the  said 
Plantation  or  Inhabitants,  and  to  take  and  surprise  by  all 
waies  and  meanes  whatsoever,  all  and  every  such  Person  and 
Persons  with  their  Shippes,  Armour,  Munition,  and  other 
Goodes,  as  shall  in  hostile  manner  invade  or  attempt  the  de 
feating  of  the  said  Plantation  or  the  Hurt  of  the  said  Com 
pany  and  Inhabitants." 

One  of  the  limitations,  it  will  be  noticed,  upon  the 
power  given  to  make  laws,  was,  that  they  should  not 
be  "  contrarie  or  repugnant"  to  the  laws  of  Eng 
land.  Another  limitation  was, 

''That  all  and  every  the  Subjects  of  Us,  our  Heiress  or 
Successors,  which  shall  goe  to  and  inhabite  within  the  saide 
Landes  and  Premisses  hereby  mentioned  to  be  graunted,  and 
every  of  their  Children  which  shall  happen  to  be  borne 
there,  or  on  the  Seas  in  goeing  thither,  or  retorning  from 
thence,  shall  have  and  enjoy  all  liberties  and  Immunities  of 
free  and  naturall  Subjects  within  any  of  the  Domynions  of 
Us,  our  Heires  or  Successors,  to  all  intents,  constructions, 
and  Purposes  whatsoever,  as  yf  they  and  everie  of  them 
were  borne  within  the  Realme  of  England." 

It  was  further  provided  that, 

' '  Theis  our  Letters  patents  *  *  *  shall  be  construed 
reputed  and  adjudged  in  all  Cases  most  favorablie  on  the 
Behalf,  and  for  the  Benefitt  and  Behoofe  of  the  saide  Gov 
ernor  and  Company  and  their  Successors." 

These  grants  of  governmental  powers,  in  connec 
tion  with  the  fact  that  the  chief  and  evident  purpose 


32  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

of  the  charter  was  to  establish  in  a  distant  country  a 
colony  which  would  necessarily  require  a  local  gov 
ernment  of  some  kind,  of  course  implied  such  addi 
tional  powers  as  were  necessary  to  render  effectual 
those  expressly  granted.  It  will  be  noted  that  the 
power  granted  to  make  laws  was  not  limited  to  the 
making  of  mere  by-laws  for  the  regulation  of  cor 
porate  business  or  the  corporate  rights  oi  the  mem 
bers.  Jurisdiction  was  given  over  the  "  people  in 
habiting  and  to  inhabit ' '  the  territory  covered  by  the 
grant.  The  power  and  the  jurisdiction  so  given  were 
far  greater  than  those  necessary  to  enable  a  mere 
trading  corporation  to  make  by-laws  and  carry  on 
business.  They  were  much  more  extensive  than  the 
power  and  jurisdiction  usually  granted  to  municipal 
corporations  in  England  at  that  time,  or  to  such  cor 
porations  in  England  or  America  at  this  day. 

On  the  other  hand  the  limitations  already  men 
tioned,  and  various  others  contained  in  the  charter, 
indicate  very  clearly  that  Charles  I  had  no  intention 
of  relinquishing  sovereign  control  over  the  colony. 
Indeed  he  would  have  had  no  right  to  do  so,  even  if 
he  had  so  intended.  The  charter  also  expressly  re 
served  the  right  of  the  sovereign  power  to  collect 
"  taxes,  subsidies  and  customes,"  subject  to  certain 
exceptions,  the  most  important  of  which  were  limited 
in  duration  to  periods  of  from  seven  to  twenty-one 
years. 

It  is  obvious,  however,  that  the  charter  left  a  large 
jurisdictional  territory  with  very  obscurely  defined 
limits.  Its  language  upon  many  questions,  certain  to 
be  raised  in  controversies  that  were  sure  to  arise,  left 


MAKING   A    GOVERNMENT.  33 

much  to  construction,  without  the  aid  of  any  wen  set 
tled  legal  rules  or  precedents,  and  was  calculated  to 
cause,  as  it  did  cause,  grave  doubts  and  violent  dif 
ferences  of  opinion,  some  of  which  remain  unsettled 
to  this  day. 

As  shown  in  a  subsequent  chapter1  the  con 
struction  which  the  colonists  themselves,  at  a  later 
period,  gave  to  the  charter,  clearly  appears  in 
their  discussions,  after  the  execution  of  Charles  I,  as 
to  their  relation  "  to  the  State  of  England ';  and 
"what  subjection  we  owed  to  that  State."  But 
some  of  the  views  entertained  at  that  time  were  not 
even  then  publicly  promulgated,  and  were  not  hinted 
at  in  any  public  record,  document,  or  correspondence, 
while  any  king  ruled  in  England. 

No  king  ever  acquiesced  in  the  colonists'  claim  of 
right  to  exercise  all  of  the  powers  which  they  did  ex 
ercise,  and  afterwards,  as  explained  in  a  subsequent 
chapter,2  the  exercise  of  such  powers  was  successfully 
urged  in  England  as  a  legal  justification  for  the  revo 
cation  of  the  charter;  while  in  Massachusetts  the 
legality  of  such  revocation  was  never  conceded.3 

Whatever  powers  and  jurisdiction  were  granted  by 
the  charter,  it  was  upon  this  document  that  the  colo 
nists  based,  or  professed  to  base,  the  government 
which  they  established. 

There  were,  of  course,  no  clearly  marked  bounda 
ries  in  the  charter  between  the  executive,  the  legisla 
tive  and  the  judicial  powers  of  the  government.  The 

Chapter  XIII. 
2  Chapter  XVI. 
8  Chief- justice  Shaw  in  Commonwealth  vs.  Alger,  7  Cush.  53-92. 

PUR.  REP. — 3 


34  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

governor  does  not  seem  to  have  been  vested,  either 
by  the  charter  or  by  the  laws  subsequently  enacted, 
with  very  extensive  executive  powers*  but,  from  time 
to  time,  as  the  necessity  for  them  arose,  various  gen 
eral  and  local  executive  officers  were  provided  for. 

One  of  the  first  things  attempted,  as  stated  in  the 
preceding  chapter,  was  to  locate  the  seat  of  govern 
ment,  but  the  location  was  not  agreed  upon  until 
some  time  afterwards.  In  the  second  year  the  gov 
ernor  took  down  the  frame  of  the  house  which  he 
had  erected  in  Newtown,  and  set  it  up  at  Shawmut, 
afterwards  called  Boston,  from  Boston  in  England, 
where  the  Rev.  John  Cotton  had  lived.  The  General 
Court  met  there  on  October  19,  1630,  "for  the  estab- 
lishinge  of  the  government,"  and  at  a  meeting  held 
there  on  October  3,  1632,  it  was  " thought  by  generall 
consent  that  Boston  is  the  fittest  place  for  publique 
meetings  of  any  place  in  the  Bay."  And  so  Boston 
became  the  capital  of  the  infant  commonwealth. 

Before  this  time,  however,  a  government  had 
been  started.  On  August  23,  1630,  ten  weeks  after 
Winthrop's  arrival,  the  first  meeting  of  the  Court  of 
Assistants  in  New  England  was  held  at  Charlestown. 
At  this  meeting  "  Impse  :  it  was  propounded  howe 
the  ministers  should  be  maintained,  Mr.  Wilson  and 
Mr.  Phillips  only  propounded."  At  the  same  meet 
ing  the  process  in  civil  actions  was  defined  and  the 
wages  of  carpenters  and  other  mechanics  were  fixed. 
It  was  also  ' '  ordered  that  the  Governor  and  Deputy 
Governor  for  the  tyme  being  shall  alwaies  be  jus 
tices  of  ye  peace,  and  that  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall, 
Mr.  Johnson  &  Mr.  Ludlowe  shall  be  justices  of  the 


MAKING  A   GOVERNMENT.  35 

peace  for  the  present  tyme  ;  in  all  things  to  have  like 
power  that  justices  of  peace  hath  in  England  for  ref 
ormation  of  abuses  and  punishing  of  offenders  ;  and 
that  any  justice  of  the  peace  may  imprison  an  offend 
er,  but  not  to  inflict  any  corporall  punishment  with 
out  the  presence  and  Consent  of  some  one  of  the  As 
sistants."1  The  processes  to  be  used  in  civil  actions 
were  also  defined. 

It  soon  became  necessary  to  determine  who  should 
be  entitled  to  the  privileges  of  citizenship  and  what 
qualifications  should  be  required.  It  has  been  sup 
posed  that  not  more  than  twenty  of  the  original  mem 
bers  of  the  company  ever  came  over  from  England, 
and  some  of  these  returned.  The  great  majority  of 
those  who  were  not  freemen,  but  who  had,  equally 
with  those  who  were  freemen,  contributed  to  the  es 
tablishment  of  the  colony,  would  not  willingly  have 
consented  to  be  shut  out  from  any  voice  in  the  man 
agement  of  its  affairs.  Moreover  it  was  necessary, 
in  order  to  carry  on  the  government,  to  admit  some 
of  them  to  the  privileges  of  citizenship.  But,  until 
the  first  General  Court  was  held  on  October  19,  1630, 
none  had  been  admitted  freemen.  One  hundred  and 
eighteen  of  the  colonists  had  previously  given  notice 
of  their  desire  to  be  admitted,  and  these  were  ad 
mitted  at  the  first  meeting.  No  religious  test  was 
then  required. 

Up  to  this  time  the  management  of  the  colony  had 
been  exercised  chiefly  by  the  governor  and  the  as 
sistants,  and  the  latter,  being  desirous  of  retaining 
their  power,  had  prevailed  upon  the  freemen  to  con- 

1  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  pp.  73,  74. 


36  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

sent  to  orders,  the  object  of  which  was  to  perpetuate 
the  assistants  in  office  and  to  give  them  the  power  of 
choosing  the  governor  and  deputy  governor.  But  at 
the  General  Court  of  election  in  May,  1631,  the  free 
men,  in  the  meantime,  having  come  to  a  clearer  under 
standing  of  the  charter,  resumed  the  power,  which  it 
expressly  gave  them,  of  electing  not  only  the  governor 
and  deputy  governor,  but  the  assistants  also.  At  the 
same  General  Court  a  religious  qualification  was  re 
quired  as  a  condition  precedent  to  admission  to  the  priv 
ileges  of  citizenship,  and  it  was  now  "ordered  and 
agreed  that  for  time  to  come  noe  man  shall  be  admit 
ted  to  the  freedome  of  this  body  politique  but  such  as 
are  members  of  some  of  the  Churches  within  the  lym- 
etts  of  the  same."  And  no  one  could  be  admitted  a 
freeman  except  upon  taking  the  following  oath  : 

"  I  A.  B.  being,  by  Gods  providence,  an  inhabitant  & 
ffreeman  within  the  jurisdiction  of  this  Commonweal,  doe 
freely  acknowledge  myself  to  be  subject  to  the  government 
thereof  &  therefore  doe  hereby  Sweare,  by  the  greate  & 
dreadfull  name  of  the  everlyveing  God,  that  I  will  be  true 
and  faithful  to  the  same  &  will  accordingly  yeilde  assistance 
&  support  thereunto,  with  my  personal  estate,  as  in  Equity 
I  am  bound,  &  will  also  truely  indeavor  to  mainetaine  &  pre 
serve  all  the  libertyes  and  privilidges  thereof  submitting 
myselfe  to  the  wholesome  lawes  &  orders  made  &  estab 
lished  by  the  same,  and  furthur  that  I  will  not  plott  nor 
practice  any  evill  against  it,  nor  consent  to  any  that  shall  soe 
doe,  but  will  timely  discover  &  reveale  the  same  to  lawful 
aucthority  nowe  here  established,  for  the  speedy  preventing 
thereof.  Moreover,  I  doe  solemnely  bynde  myself,  in  the 
sight  of  God,  that  when  I  shal  be  called  to  give  my  voice 
touching  any  such  matter  of  this  State,  wherein  freemen 


MAKING   A    GOVERNMENT.  37 

are  to  deale,  I  will  give  my  vote  and  suffrage,  as  I  shall 
judge  in  my  own  conscience  may  best  conduce  &  tend  to 
the  publique  weale  of  the  body,  without  respect  of  persons 
or  favor  of  any  man.  Soe  helpe  mee  God,  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. " 

Every  man  over  20  years  of  age,  after  having  been 
a  resident  over  six  months  and  not  admitted  a  free 
man,  was  required  to  take  the  following  oath  of  alle 
giance,  upon  pain  of  banishment  in  case  of  refusal: 

"  I  doe  hereby  sweare  and  call  God  to  witness,  that  be 
ing  nowe  an  inhabitant  within  this  jurisdiction  of  the  Massa 
chusetts,  I  doe  acknowledge  myself e  lawfully  subject  to  the 
aucthoritie  and  government  there  established,  and  doe  ac 
cordingly  submitt  my  person,  family  and  estate,  to  be  pro 
tected  ordered  &  governed  by  the  laws  and  constitutions 
thereof  and  doe  faithfully  promise  to  be  from  time  to  time 
obedient  and  conformeable  thereunto,  and  to  the  aucthoritie 
of  the  Governor  &  all  other  magistrates  there  and  their  suc 
cessors  and  to  all  such  lawes,  orders,  sentences,  &  decrees, 
as  nowe  are  or  hereafter  shalbe  lawfully  made,  decreed  & 
published  by  them  or  their  successors.  And  I  will  alwayes 
indeavor  (as  in  duty  I  am  bound)  to  advance  the  peace  & 
well  being  of  this  body  politique,  and  I  will  (to  my  best 
power  &  means)  seeke  to  divert  &  prevent  whatsoever  may 
tende  to  the  ruine  or  damage  thereof,  or  of  ye  Governor, 
Deputy  Governor,  or  Assistants  or  any  of  them  or  th  rr 
successors,  and  will  give  speedy  notice  to  them,  or  some  of 
them,  of  any  sedition,  violence,  treacherie,  or  other  hurte  or 
evill  which  I  shall  knowe,  heare,  or  vehemently  suspect  to 
be  plotted  or  intended  against  them  or  any  of  them,  or 
against  the  said  Commonwealth  or  government  established. 
So  help  mee  God." 


38  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC, 

Another  question  to  be  settled  was  the  question  as 
to  the  exercise  of  the  legislative  power.  This  was  at 
first  assumed  by  the  assistants,  but  very  soon  the 
freemen  demanded  a  right  to  representation,  and  in 
1634  provision  was  made  for  the  election  of  deputies 
to  the  General  Court  from  each  town. 

There  was  no  provision  in  the  charter  for  estab 
lishing  courts  of  any  kind,  but  judicial  as  well  as 
legislative  power,  from  the  beginning,  was  assumed 
by  the  General  Court,  and  it  exercised  exclusive  juris 
diction  in  both  civil  and  criminal  proceedings  until 
1639.  ^n  that  year?  and  from  time  to  time  afterward, 
the  Court  of  Assistants,  county  courts  and  various 
inferior  courts  were  established,  the  General  Court 
retaining  appellate  jurisdiction.  The  General  Court 
exercised  and  retained  original  and  exclusive  chancery 
jurisdiction  until  1685,  when  such  jurisdiction  was 
conferred  upon  the  magistrates  of  the  county  courts.1 

The  exercise  of  the  taxing  power  by  the  assistants 
caused  much  vigorous  opposition  and  resulted  in  an 
order  by  the  General  Court  in  1632,  "that  there  should 
be  two  of  every  plantation  appointed  to  confer  with 
the  Court  about  raising  of  a  publique  stock,"  a  meas 
ure  which,  as  Palfrey  states,  "  proved  to  be  the  germ 
of  a  second  house  of  legislature." 

Measures  were  early  taken  for  putting  the  colony 
upon  a  military  footing,  and  forts  and  fortifications 
were  erected  at  Castle  Island,  Charlestown,  Salem^ 
and  other  points,  train-bands  were  established,  pro 
visions  made  for  watches  and  for  the  distribution  of 
arms  and  ammunition,  and  military  commissions 

1  See  Chapter  III  as  to  the  jurisdiction  and  procedure  of  the  courts. 


MAKING   A    GOVERNMENT.  39 

were,  from  time  to  time,  created  with  general  power 
"to  dispose  of  all  military  affaires  whatsoever." 

Laws  were  also  passed,  which  will  be  more  partic 
ularly  noted  in  another  chapter,  providing  what 
should  be  a  legal  tender  in  payment  of  debts  and 
taxes  ;  also  laws  regulating  weights  and  measures, 
and  registry  laws.  New  towns  were  from  time  to 
time  established,  and  laws  were  enacted  authorizing 
and  defining  the  exercise  of  the  right  of  local  self- 
government.  The  beginning  of  a  mail  system  was 
also  made  by  appointing  Richard  Fairbanks,  of  Bos 
ton,  postmaster,  with  authority  to  receive  and  deliver 
letters  at  specified  rates.  Various  other  laws  of  a 
general  nature  were  enacted,  some  of  which  will  be 
more  particularly  mentioned  in  subsequent  chapters. 

Much  of  the  time  of  the  General  Court  during  the 
first  ten  years  seems  to  have  been  taken  up  with  set 
tling  disputes  between  towns  as  to  their  boundaries, 
and  providing  for  the  construction  of  roads  and 
bridges  and  ferries  and  keeping  them  in  repair, 
granting  licenses  for  inns  or  ordinaries,  and  regulat 
ing  the  running  at  large  of  cattle  and  swine.  Most 
matters  of  merely  local  concern  were  afterwards  re 
ferred  to  the  various  towns. 

From  the  beginning,  the  authorities  of  the  little 
colony  asserted  the  supremacy  and  dignity  of  the  new 
commonwealth,  and  enforced  respect  to  it  and  its 
officers.  Thomas  Dexter,  in  1632,  was  ordered  to 
be  "sett  in  the  bilbowes,  disfranchised  &  fined  40  £ 
forspeakeing  reproachful  &  seditious  words  against  the 
government  here  established  &  findeing  fault  to  dyvers 
with  the  acts  of  the  Court,  sayeing  this  captious  gov- 


40  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

ernment  will  bring  all  to  naught,  adding  that  the  best 
of  them  was  but  an  atturney."  And  the  next  year, 
"Capt.  John  Stone  for  his  outrage  committed  in  con 
fronting  aucthority,  abusing  Mr.  Ludlowe  [one  of 
the  assistants]  both  in  words  and  behavour,  assault 
ing  him  &  calling  him  a  just  as,  is  fined  100  <£,  and 
prohibited  comeing  within  this  pattent  without  leave 
from  the  Government  under  penalty  of  death." 
Peter  Bussaker  was  "  fined  5  £  for  sleiteing  the  mag 
istrates,  or  what  they  could  do,  saying  they  could 
but  fin^himu  1L.,'  Richard  Silvester,  "for  speaking 
"against  the  law  about  hogs  &  against  a  particular 
magistrate  was  fined  ten  pounds." 

Speaking  disrespectfully  of  the  churches  or  minis 
ters  was  also  severely  punished.  Katherine  Finch 
for  "speaking  against  the  magistrates,  against  the 
churches  &  against  the  elders,  was  sensured  to  be 
whipped  &  committed  till  the  General  Court."  "Mr. 
Ambros  Martin,  for  calling  the  church  covenant  a 
stinking  carryon  &  a  humane  invention  &  saying  he 
wondered  at  God's  patience,  feared  it  would  end  in 
the  Sharpe  &  said  the  ministers  did  dethrone  Christ 
&  set  up  themselves ;  he  was  fined  10  £  &  counselled 
to  go  to  Mr.  Mather  to  bee  instructed  by  him."  Two 
Indian  women  were  "  adjudged  to  be  whipped  for 
their  insolent  carriage  &  abusing  Mr.  Weld,"  one  of 
the  ministers.  Samuel  Norman  "was  committed  for 
want  of  security  &  was  censured  to  be  whipped  for 
saying  if  ministers  which  come  will  but  raile  against 
England  some  would  receive  them."  Edward  Tom- 
lins  got  into  trouble  by  expressing  "his  opinions 


,t 


MAKING    A    GOVERNMENT.  4! 

aganst  singing  in  the  churches,"  but  upon  "  retract 
ing"  them  he  was  discharged. 

Strict  surveillance  was  also  exercised  by  the  au 
thorities  over  those  who,  it  was  feared,  might  con 
taminate  the  colony  by  their  vicious  lives  or  heretical 
opinions,  and  in  several  instances  such  persons  were 
banished  under  penalty  of  death  in  case  of  their  re 
turn  without  permission. 

William  Foster  "was  informed  that  wee  conceive 
him  not  fit  to  live  with  us :  therefore  hee  was  wished 
to  depart  before  the  General  Court  in  March  next." 
Mr.  Thomas  Makepeace,  "  because  of  his  novile  dis 
position  was  informed  wee  were  weary  of  him,  unless 
hee  reforme." 

Some  of  those  banished  were  so  dealt  with  chiefly 
on  account  of  their  immoral  conduct,  but  others  were 
banished  solely  for  the  reason  that  their  religious 
opinions  were  deemed  unsound  and  pernicious.  John 
Wheelwright,  Francis  Hutchinson  and  others  were  so 
dealt  with  at  an  early  date,  and  many  others  at  a  later 
period. 

Careful  scrutiny  was  also  made  of  every  new-comer, 
and  in  1637  ^  was  ordered,  under  severe  penalties, 
that  ' '  noe  towne  or  person  shall  receive  any  stranger 
resorting  hither  with  intent  to  reside  in  this  jurisdic 
tion,  nor  shal  alow  any  lot  or  habitation  to  any,  or 
intertaine  any  such  above  three  weekes,  except  such 
person  shal  have  alowance  under  the  hands  of  some 
one  of  the  counsell  or  of  two  other  of  the  magis 
trates."1  Those  who  had  been  excommunicated  by 
the  churches  were  special  objects  of  suspicion,  and 

1Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  pp.  196,  228. 


42  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

in    1638,  a  very  severe   law  was  passed  providing 
that: 

' '  Whereas  it  is  found  by  sad  experience  that  diverse  per 
sons,  who  have  been  justly  cast  out  of  some  of  the  churches 
do  prophanely  contemne  the  same  sacred  &  dreadful  ordi 
nance,  by  presenting  themselves  overbouldly  in  other  as 
semblies  &  speaking  lightly  of  their  censures,  to  the  great 
offence  &  greefe  of  God's  people  &  incuragement  of  evil 
minded  persons  to  contemne  the  said  ordinance,  it  is  there- 
ford  ordered,  that  whosoever  shall  stand  excommunicate  for 
the  space  of  6  months  without  laboring  what  in  him  or  her 
lyeth  to  be  restored,  such  person  shal  bee  presented  to  the 
court  of  Assistants  &  there  proceeded  with  by  fine,  impris 
onment,  banishment  or  furthur,  for  the  good  behaviour,  as 
their  contempt  &  obstinacy  upon  full  hearing  shall  deserve."1 

It  is  true  that  this  harsh  law  was  repealed  the  next 
year,2  but  prosecutions  continued  for  a  long  time 
afterwards,  which,  though  nominally  for  violation  of 
some  other  law,  were  in  reality  designed  to  punish  by 
fine,  imprisonment,  or  banishment,  those  who  had 
been  expelled  from  the  churches. 

In  the  ten  years  following  the  first  meeting  of  the 
Court  of  Assistants  in  1630,  the  little  colony  had 
made  rapid  progress  in  establishing  a  govern 
ment.  A  capital  had  been  selected;  the  framework 
of  a  legislative  and  of  a  judicial  system  had  been  con 
structed;  a  system  of  taxation  had  been  devised;  reg 
ulations  had  been  adopted  for  the  acquisition  and 
transfer  of  real  and  personal  property;  a  military  es 
tablishment  had  been  effected;  a  beginning  had  been 
made  in  the  system  of  local  governments,  and  many 

1Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  242. 
2  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  271. 


MAKING   A    GOVERNMENT.  43 

minor  details  in  putting  into  operation  and  carrying 
on  a  government  had  been  settled.  The  territory  of 
the  little  commonwealth  had  expanded  and  the  pop 
ulation  had  increased.  In  1640  there  were  17  towns 
included  in  the  tax  rate,  and  at  the  General  Court  held 
in  1641  there  were,  besides  the  governor  and  the  as 
sistants,  35  deputies.  But  there  were  still  lacking 
some  essentials  of  a  well-ordered  government.  There 
was  nothing,  beyond  the  charter,  bearing  even  the 
semblance  of  a  constitution  defining  the  cardinal 
rights  of  the  citizens,  nor  was  there  anything  like  a 
code  of  laws. 

When  the  first  deputies  came  together  they  at 
once  demanded  "a  sight  of  the  patent,"  and,  hav 
ing  examined  it,  they  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
all  the  prior  laws,  not  made  by  the  General  Court, 
were  illegal  and  should  be  abrogated.  The  governor, 
however,  gave  them  an  explanation  on  this  point 
which  eased  their  minds. 

But  the  deputies  were  not  satisfied  with  the  man 
ner  in  which  the  laws  were  made  and  enforced.  Some 
had  not  been  made  by  the  General  Court;  none  had 
been  printed;  they  had  not  been  compiled  or  ar 
ranged  in  any  methodical  order,  and  they  were 
buried  in  records  to  which  the  general  public  had 
not  access.  If  the  magistrate  himself  knew  what  the 
law  was,  it  was  likely  that  the  litigants  did  not,  and 
they  were  not  allov/ed  lawyers  to  find  it  for  them. 
But  often  there  was  no  law  at  all  governing  the  case, 
and  then  the  magistrate  decided  according  to  the 
scripture  rule,  if  one  could  be  found  to  fit  the  litigation. 
Jf,  as  frequently  happened,  neither  legal  nor  scrip- 


44  THE  PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

tural  authority  could  be  found,  then  the  magistrate 
decided  according  to  his  own  notions  of  justice  or 
upon  the  advice  of  the  ministers.  Persons  were  tried 
and  punished,  and  sometimes  very  severely  punished, 
for  offenses  not  defined  in  any  statute  of  England  or 
of  the  commonwealth.  Men  were  banished  from 
the  colony  though  no  specific  crime  had  been 
proved  or  alleged  against  them,  and  without  any 
reason  publicly  given  other  than  the  statement  that 
6 '  they  were  not  fit  to  live  with  us . "  They  were  even  ar 
raigned  and  reprimanded  for  alleged  misconduct 
committed  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  and  be 
fore  they  had  become  residents  of  the  commonwealth, 
as  in  the  case  of  John  Woolrige,  who,  "  appearing 
upon  the  indictment  of  the  grand  jury,  confessed  his 
fraude  &  drunkenness  in  Ould  England,  for  which 
he  was  sharply  reproved  &  seriously  admonished." 
Until  the  adoption  in  1641  of  the  Body  of  Liberties, 
"the  law  dispensed  by  the  magistrates,"  according 
to  Palfrey,  "was  no  other  than  equity  as  its  prin- 
iples  and  rules  existed  in  their  own  reason  and  con 
science  instructed  by  Scripture." 

This  was  a  very  loose  and  unsatisfactory  method 
of  determining  legal  rights.  The  freemen  of  the 
colony  soon  became  restive  under  it,  and,  as  early  as 
1635,  "the  deputies,  having  conceived  great  danger 
to  our  state,  in  regard  that  our  magistrates,  for  want 
of  positive  laws,  in  many  cases  might  proceed  ac 
cording  to  their  discretions,"1  insisted  upon  the  adop 
tion  of  a  body  of  "fundamental  laws." 

Accordingly,    in   May,   1635,   tne    governor,    the 

1  Winthrop,  Vol.  i,  p.  160. 


MAKING   A    GOVERNMENT.  45 

deputy  governor,  John  Winthrop  and  Thomas  Dud 
ley,  Esq.,  were  deputed  by  the  General  Court  "to 
make  a  draught  of  such  lawes  as  they  shall  judge 
needefull  for  the  well-ordering  of  this  plantation  &  to 
present  the  same  to  the  Court."  In  May,  1636,  a 
further  order  was  made  that : 

"The  Governor,  Deputy  Governor,  Tho.  Dudley,  John 
Haynes,  Rich.  Bellingham,  Esq.,  Mr.  Cotton,  Mr.  Peters  & 
Mr.  Shepheard  are  intreated  to  make  a  draught  of  lawes 
agreeable  to  the  word  of  God,  which  may  be  the  ffundamen- 
talls  of  this  Commonwealth  &  to  present  the  same  to  the 
nexte  General  Court.  And  it  is  ordered  that  in  the  meane 
tyme  the  magistrates  and  their  assistants  shall  proceede  in 
the  Courts  to  heare  &  determine  all  causes  according  to  the 
laws  nowe  established  &  where  there  is  noe  law,  then  as 
neere  the  lawe  of  God  as  they  can." 

On  the  25th  of  October,  in  the  same  year,  the  Rev. 
John  Cotton,  who  had  been  "requested  by  the  Gen 
eral  Court,  with  some  other  ministers,  to  assist  some 
of  the  magistrates  in  compiling  a  body  of  fundamental 
laws,  did  this  court  present  a  copy  of  Moses,  his  ju- 
dicials,  compiled  in  an  exact  method."1  Doubtless  it 
occurred  to  some  of  the  General  Court  that  Moses 
himself  would  probably  have  made  some  additions 
to  the  Mosaic  law  to  make  it  suit  the  necessities  of 
the  people  inhabiting  the  colony  of  Massachusetts 
Bay,  and  so  Cotton's  code  was  not  adopted.  The 
subject  came  up  again  in  the  General  Court  held  in 
March,  1637-8,  and  in  an  order  reciting  how  it  had 
been  found,  "by  the  little  time  of  experience  wee 
have  heare  had,  that  the  want  of  written  lawes  have 

1  Winthrop,  Vol.  i,  p.  202. 


A.6  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

put  the  Court  into  many  doubts  &  much  trouble  in 
many  particular  cases,"  it  was  directed  that  the  free 
men  of  each  town  should 

"Assemble  together  in  their  severall  townes  &  collect  the 
heads  of  such  necessary  &  fundamentall  lawes  as  may  bee 
sutable  to  the  times  &  places  whear  God  by  his  providence 
hath  cast  us  &  the  heads  of  such  laws  to  deliver  in  writing 
to  the  Governor  for  the  time  being  before  the  5th  day  of  the 
4th  month,  called  June,  next,  to  the  intent  that  the  same 
Governor,  together  with  the  best  of  the  standing  council  & 
Richard  Bellingham  Esq.,  Mr.  Bulkley,  Mr.  Philips,  Mr. 
Peters,  &  Mr.  Shepard,  elders  of  severall  Churches,  Mr. 
Nathaniel  Ward,  Mr.  William  Spencer,  &  Mr.  Will  Hau- 
thorne,  or  the  major  part  of  them,  may,  upon  survey  of 
such  heads  of  lawes,  make  a  compendious  abrigment  of  the 
same  by  the  General  Court  in  Autume  next,  adding  yet  to 
the  same  or  detracting  therefrom  what  in  their  wisdomes 
shall  seeme  meete." 

The  same  committee  was  directed  to  prepare,  for 
submission  to  the  General  Court,  a  revision  of  the 
orders  already  made.  In  1639  it  was  ordered  that 

"The  Governor,  Deputy  Governor,  Treasurer  &  Mr, 
Stoughton  or  any  three  of  them,  with  two  or  more  of  the 
deputies  of  Boston,  Charlestowne,  or  Roxbury,  shall  peruse 
all  those  modells  which  have  bene  or  shalbe  presented  to 
this  Court  or  themselves,  concerning  a  forme  of  government 
&  lawes  to  bee  established  &  shall  drawe  them  up  into  one 
(altering,  ading,  or  omiting  what  they  shall  thinke  fit)  & 
shall  take  order  that  the  same  shalbee  coppied  out  &  sent  to 
the  severall  townes,  that  the  elders  of  the  churches  &  free 
men  may  consider  of  them  against  the  next  Generall  Court." 


MAKING   A    GOVERNMENT.  47 

At  the  General  Court  held  in  May,  1640,  an  order 
was  made  reciting  that  "  Whereas  a  breviate  of  lawes 
was  formerly  sent  fourth  to  bee  considered  by  the 
elders  of  the  churches  &  other  freemen  of  this  com 
monwealth,  it  is  now  desired  that  they  will  endevor 
to  ripen  their  thoughts  and  counsells  about  the  same 
by  the  Generall  Court  in  the  next  8th  month."  Such 
progress  was  made  that  in  October,  1641,  "The  Gov 
ernor  and  Mr.  Hauthorne  were  desired  to  speake  to 
Mr.  Ward  for  a  coppey  of  the  liberties  &  of  the  capi- 
tall  lawes  to  bee  transcribed  &  sent  to  the  severall 
townes,"  and  in  December  following,  "Mr.  Deputy 
Endecot,  Mr.  Downing  &  Mr.  Hauthorne  are  author 
ized  to  get  19  coppies  of  the  lawes,  liberties  & 
the  formes  of  oathes  transcribed  and  subscribed  by 
their  severall  hands,  &  none  to  bee  authentick  but 
such  as  they  subscribe  &  to  bee  paid  for  by  the  cun- 
stable  of  each  towne  los  a  peece  for  each  coppey  & 
to  bee  prepared  within  sixe  weekes." 

The  last  entry  in  the  record  of  the  proceedings  of 
the  same  General  Court,  said  to  be  in  the  handwrit 
ing  of  Gov.  Winthrop,  is  this  :  "At  this  Court  the 
bodye  of  lawes  formerly  sent  forth  among  the  ffree- 
men  was  voted  to  stand  in  force." 

The  provisions  of  the  Body  of  Liberties,  thus 
adopted,  will  be  more  fully  considered  in  the  next 
chapter.  Its  adoption  marks  the  completion  of  one 
of  the  most  important  of  the  preliminary  proceedings 
in  the  establishment  of  a  government  for  the  new 
commonwealth . 


III 

PURITAN  LAWS,  LAWYERS  AND  COURTS 

IT  is  difficult  to  write  about  law  in  such  a  way  as 
to  make  what  is  written  interesting  even  to  lawyers, 
and  much  more  difficult  to  make  what  is  written  in 
teresting  to  the  general  reader.  But  we  can  not  un 
derstand  the  history  of  any  people  without  knowing 
something  about  their  laws,  and  it  is  utterly  impossi 
ble  to  understand  the  history  of  the  Massachusetts 
Puritans  without  a  close  and  careful  study  of  those 
which  they  adopted.  A  very  general  outline  of  them, 
however,  is  all  that  will  be  attempted  in  this  chapter. 
In  regard  to  some  of  them  more  specific  mention  is 
made  in  other  chapters.  The  steps  preliminary  to 
the  adoption  of  the  Body  of  Liberties  have  been  men 
tioned  in  the  preceding  chapter.  The  delay  in  en 
acting  a  general  code  of  laws,  according  to  Winthrop, 
was  due  partly  to  the  fact  that  the  General  Court 
wished  fuller  information  as  to  the  "  nature  and  dis 
position  of  the  people,"  and  partly  to  the  fear  of  en 
acting  a  code  that  might  "  transgress  the  limits  "  of 
the  charter. 

"  Without  overrating  the  influence  of  any  one 
man,"  says  Mr.  Whitmore,1  "in  the  preparation  of 
this  admirable  code,  and  believing  firmly  that  it  em- 

1  Col.  Laws  1660-1672,  p.  19. 

(48) 


PURITAN   LAWS,  LAWYERS    AND    COURTS.  49 

bodied  the  best  judgment  of  Winthrop  and  other 
leaders,  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  to  doubt  that 
the  main  literary  work,  at  least,  was  due  to  Nathan 
iel  Ward,  and  that  his  legal  abilities  and  training 
were  at  least  equal  to  those  of  any  of  his  associates." 
The  code  is  not  merely  a  curious  relic  of  the  past, 
but  is  of  great  historic  value.  Chief  Justice  Shaw1 
says  that  "the  term  *  liberties'  was  used  as  synony 
mous  with  laws  or  legal  rights  founded  and  estab 
lished  by  law."  He  suggests  that  they  were  so  called 
because  "  it  might  seem  to  them  less  arrogant  to  set 
forth  and  declare  their  liberties  and  rights  in  this 
form  than  to  enact  in  terms  a  body  of  laws  which 
might  seem  to  indicate  a  disregard  for  the  authority 
of  the  Mother  Country."  In  the  same  opinion  he 
says  that  "they  bear  internal  evidence  of  having  been 
drawn  with  great  skill  and  legal  accuracy  and  have 
a  constant  reference  to  the  established  principles  of 
the  laws  of  England." 

By  this  code  it  was  provided  that  "  No  man's  life 
shall  be  taken  away,  no  man's  honour  or  good  name 
shall  be  stayned,  no  man's  person  shall  be  arested, 
restrayned,  banished,  dismembered,  nor  any  wayes 
punished,  no  man  shall  be  deprived  of  his  wife  or 
children,  no  man's  goods  or  estaite  shall  be  taken 
away  from  him,  nor  any  way  indammaged  under 
coulor  of  law  or  Countenance  of  Authentic,  unlesse 
it  be  by  vertue  or  equitie  of  some  expresse  law  of  the 
Country  waranting  the  same,  established  by  a  gen- 
erall  Court  and  sufficiently  published,  or  in  case  of 

1  Commonwealth  vs.  Alger,  7  Cush.  53-70. 
PUR.  REP.— 4 


50  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 


the  defect  of  a  law  in  any  parteculer  case  by  the  word 
of  god." 

It  was  also  provided  that  "  Every  person  within 
this  Jurisdiction,  whether  Inhabitant  or  forreiner, 
shall  enjoy  the  same  justice  and  law,  that  is  generall 
for  the  plantation,  which  we  constitute  and  execute 
one  towards  another  without  partialitie  or  delay." 

The  right  of  trial  by  jury  in  both  civil  and  criminal 
cases  was  secured.  No  man  was  to  be  twice  sen 
tenced  "for  the  same  crime,  offence  or  Trespasse." 
Torture  was  forbidden  except  when,  after  conviction 
of  a  man,  "it  is  very  apperent  there  be  other  con- 
spiratours  or  confederates  with  him.  Then  he  may  be 
tortured,  yet  not  with  such  Tortures  as  be  Barbarous 
and  inhumane."  Barbarous  and  inhuman  bodily 
punishments  were  prohibited.  Slavery  and  villein 
age  were  prohibited  "  unless  it  be  lawfull  Captives 
taken  in  just  warres  and  such  strangers  as  willingly 
selle  themselves  or  are  sold  to  us."  Christian  refu 
gees  6 '  from  the  Tiranny  or  oppression  of  their  perse 
cutors,  or  from  famyne,  warres,  or  other  like  neces 
sary  or  cumpulsarie  cause ' '  were  to  be  "  entertayned 
and  succoured." 

Ten  crimes  were  punished  capitally,  viz.,  idolatry, 
witchcraft,  blasphemy,  murder,  whether  with  pre 
meditated  malice  or  sudden  anger  or  cruelty  of 
passion,  or  "through  guile,  either  by  poysoning  or 
other  such  divelish  practice,"  bestiality,  sodomy, 
adultery  with  a  married  or  espoused  wife,  stealing, 
perjury  in  capital  cases,  and  treason. 

The  lawmakers,  it  is  clear,  did  not  then  feel  safe 
in  declaring  capital  punishment  except  upon  scrip- 


PURITAN   LAWS,  LAWYERS   AND   COURTS.  5! 

tural  authority,  and  fortified  themselves  with  scrip 
tural  references  which  are  printed  on  the  margin  of 
the  page  whereon  the  offenses  are  defined.  Thus 
the  law  against  witchcraft  is  printed  as  follows: 

"Ex.  22,  18,  1  If  any  man  or  Woeman  be  a  witch, 
Lev.  20,  27.  Y  (that  is  hath  or  consulteth  with  a  famil- 
Dut.  18,  IO.J  iar  spirit,  )  They  shall  be  put  to  death." 

Among  the  provisions  respecting  the  transmission 
of  property  it  was  provided  that  "All  our  lands  and 
heritages  shall  be  free  from  all  fines  and  licenses 
upon  Alienations,  and  from  all  hariotts,  wardships, 
Liveries,  Primerseisins,  yeare  day  and  wast,  Es- 
cheates,  and  forfeitures,  upon  the  deaths  of  parents 
or  Ancestors,  be  they  naturall,  casuall  or  juditiall." 

The  laws  in  relation  to  judicial  proceedings  pro 
vided  for  appeals  and  contained  the  essence  of  the 
English  statute  of  amendments  and  jeofails  by  pro 
viding  that,  "  No  summons,  pleading,  Judgement,  or 
any  kinde  of  proceeding  in  Court  or  course  of  Jus 
tice,  shall  be  abated,  arested  or  reversed  upon  any 
kinde  of  cercumstantiall  errors  or  mistakes,  if  the 
person  and  cause  be  rightly  understood  and  intended 
by  the  Court." 

Monopolies  were  forbidden  "  but  of  such  new  In 
ventions  that  are  profitable  to  the  Countrie,  and  that 
for  a  short  time."  Other  provisions  in  the  Body  of 
Liberties  will  be  noted  hereafter. 

Libel  and  slander  were  not  specified  as  criminal 
offenses  in  the  Body  of  Liberties,  but  in  1645  a  ^aw 
was  passed1  whereby  it  was  made  a  penal  offense, 

1  Col.  Laws  1660-1672,  p.  171. 


5  2  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

punishable  by  fine  and  the  stocks,  for  any  person  of 
the  age  of  discretion  (fourteen  years),  "  to  wittingly 
and  willingly  make  or  publish  any  lye,  which  may  be 
pernicious  to  the  public  weal,  or  tending  to  the  dam 
age  or  injury  of  any  particular  person,  or  with  intent 
to  deceive  and  abuse  the  people,  with  false  newes  and 
reports."  | 

Some  have  looked  upon  this  law  as  ridiculous  and 
impracticable,  but  the  object  of  it  was  probably 
not  widely  different  from  that  of  the  modern  laws 
against  criminal  libel. 

Other  laws  were  enacted  from  time  to  time  and 
several  revisions  were  made,  one  in  1649,  one  in 
1660  and  another  in  1672.  The  revision  of  1649 
was  the  first  code  of  laws  published  in  America.  No 
copy  of  it  is  known  to  be  extant,  but  it  is  supposed 
to  have  been  incorporated  into  that  of  I66O.1 

Besides  the  laws  already  mentioned,  and  those 
which  will  be  specially  mentioned  in  subsequent 
chapters,  there  are  a  few  others  deserving  of  atten 
tion. 

A  curious  law  was  passed  in  relation  to  the  election 
of  assistants  and  the  " stuffing  of  the  ballot  box"  and 
illegal  voting,  whereby  it  was  provided,  "  That  for 
the  yearly  choosing  of  Assistants,  the  freemen  shalL 
use  Corn  &  Beanes,  the  Indian  Corn  to  manifest  Elec-f 
tion,  the  Beanes  contrary,  and  if  any  freeman  shall 

1  Recently  there  have  been  published,  by  authority  of  the  city  of  Bos 
ton,  two  volumes  of  these  colonial  laws,  one  containing  the  Body  of  Lib 
erties,  the  revision  of  1660,  and  the  supplements  to  1672  ;  the  other  con 
taining  the  revision  of  1672  and  the  supplements  to  the  dissolution  of 
the  General  Court  on  May  20,  1686.  These  volumes  have»been  edited 
by  Mr.  William  H.  Whitmore,  and  are  enriched  with  copious  and  valu 
able  notes. 


PURITAN    LAWS,  LAWYERS    AND    COURTS.  53 

put  in  more  than  one  Indian  Corne  or  Beane  for  the 
Choice  or  refusal  of  any  Public  Officer,  he  shall  for 
feit  for  every  such  offense,  Ten  Pounds,  and  that  any 
man  that  is  not  free,  or  hath  not  liberty  of  voting, 
putting  in  any  vote  shall  forfeit  the  like  Summ  of  Ten 
Pounds." 

The  laws  made  minute  provisions  for  the  raising  of 
revenue  for  the  support  of  the  general  and  local  gov 
ernments  and  defraying  "  all  common  charges  both 
civil  and  ecclesiastical,"  which  included  "  an  honor 
able  allowance  *  *  *  to  the  minister,  respecting 
the  ability  of  the  place."  Direct  taxes  were  laid  upon 
polls  and  real  and  personal  property.  Duties  were 
imposed  upon  imported  goods.  License  fees  were  col 
lected  from  innkeepers,  retail  liquor  dealers,  Indian 
traders  and  others,  and  income  taxes  were  collected 
of  butchers,  bakers,  smiths,  carpenters,  millers  and 
other  artisans  and  handicraftsmen.  Few  exemptions, 
and  these  only  to  a  partial  extent  (except  in  case  of 
the  ministers),  were  allowed. 

The  taxes  for  the  support  of  the  general  govern 
ment,  and  the  rates  therefor,  were  established  by  the 
General  Court.  The  town  rates  were  fixed  by  officers 
selected  by  the  inhabitants. 

Some  difficulty  seems  to  have  been  experienced  in 
defining  the  tenure  of  lands,  but  the  colonists  found 
authority  in  the  Bible.  The  Indian  title  was  recog 
nized  in  a  law,  passed  in  1652,  wherein  "It  is  De 
clared  and  Ordered  by  this  Court  and  the  Authority 
thereof  that  what  Lands  any  of  the  Indians  in  this 
Jurisdiction  have  possessed  and  improved  by  subdu 
ing  the  same,  they  have  just  right  unto,  according 


54  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

to  that  in  Gen.  i,  28  &  chap.  9^  i  and  Psal.  115,  16." 
The  same  act  provided  redress  "if  any  Plantation  or 
Person  of  the  English,  shall  offer  injuriously  to  put 
any  of  the  Indians  from  their  Planting  grounds  or 
Fishing  places,"  and  prohibited  the  buying  of  land 
from  any  Indian  "  without  license  first  had  and  ob 
tained  of  the  General  Court." 

The  same  act  defines  the  authority  of  the  General 
Court  over  lands  in  the  colony  as  follows:  "And  fur 
ther  it  is  ordered  by  this  Court  and  the  Authority 
thereof,  and  be  it  hereby  Enacted,  that  all  the  tract 
of  Land  within  this  Jurisdiction,  whether  already 
graunted  to  any  English  plantations  or  persons,  or  to 
be  graunted  by  this  Court  (not  being  under  the  qual 
ifications  of  right  to  the  Indians)  is,  and  shall  be  ac 
counted  the  just  Right  of  such  English  as  already 
have,  or  hereafter  shall  have  graunt  of  Lands  from 
this  Court,  and  the  Authority  thereof  ;  from  that  of 
Genesis  i,  28  and  the  Invitation  of  the  Indians." 
Another  law  gave  towns  authority  to  "  dispose  of 
their  own  lands  and  woods." 

By  the  Body  of  Liberties1  it  was  provided  that  the 
eldest  son  of  a  person  dying  intestate  should  have  a 
double  portion  of  the  real  and  personal  estate,  unless 
the  General  Court  should,  for  just  cause,  adjudge  oth 
erwise.  By  this  it  was  probably  intended  to  abolish 
the  English  law  of  primogeniture,  and  it  is  also  prob 
able  that  the  intention  was  not  more  clearly  expressed 
lest  the  law  might  be  regarded  as  repugnant  to  the 
charter.  The  laws  made  many  and  minute  provis- 

>  No/Si. 


PURITAN   LAWS,  LAWYERS   AND    COURTS.  55 

ions  regulating  the  domestic  relations.  The  laws  as 
to  marriage  will  be  noticed  in  another  chapter.1 

No  grounds  for  divorce  were  specified  in  the  laws, 
but  Cotton  Mather  enumerates  some  of  the  causes 
which  would  justify  the  civil  magistrates  in  declaring 
the  divorce  of  married  persons,  chief  among  which 
were  adultery,  impotence,  and  malicious  desertion.2 

To  put  at  rest  the  question  whether  it  was  lawful, 
as  it  was  supposed  to  be  in  England,  for  a  man  to 
whip  his  wife  with  a  stick,  "if  no  bigger  than  his 
little  finger,"  it  was  expressly  provided  in  the  Body 
of  Liberties,  that  "Everie  marryed  woeman  shall  be 
free  from  bodilie  correction  or  stripes  by  her  husband, 
unlesse  it  be  in  his  owne  defence  upon  her  assalt.  If 
there  be  any  just  cause  of  correction,  complaint  shall 
be  made  to  Authoritie  assembled  in  some  Court,  from 
which  onely  she  shall  receive  it." 

A  great  many  laws  were  passed  to  compel  obedi 
ence  of  children  to  their  parents,  and  to  provide  for 
their  religious  training.  The  death  penalty  was  de 
nounced  against  children  who  cursed  or  smote  their 
parents  and  against  rebellious  sons,  though  there  is 
no  record  of  the  actual  infliction  of  this  penalty. 

Various  provisions  also  were  made  in  reference  to 
servants,  and  one  very  humane  provision  was  that 
"Servants  that  have  served  deligentlie  and  faithfully 
to  the  benefitt  of  their  maisters  seaven  yeares,  shall 
not  be  sent  away  emptie." 

It  can  not  be  denied  that  slavery,  to  a  limited  extent, 
was  recognized  by  law  in  the  Massachusetts  colony, 


5. 
2  Magnalia,  Vol.  2,  p.  253. 


56  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

as  appears  by  the  law  quoted  in  another  chapter.  But 
no  law  was  ever  enacted  making  slaves  of  the  chil 
dren  of  slaves,  and  the  very  atmosphere  of  Massa 
chusetts  was  always  uncongenial  to  slavery. 

It  would  not  be  practicable  to  give  even  a  synopsis 
of  all  the  laws  in  the  volumes  referred  to.  A  great 
part  of  these  relate  to  the  organization  of  the  gov 
ernment,  and  the  machinery  for  carrying  it  on,  de 
fining  the  powers,  duties  and  fees  of  officers,  the 
organization  of  courts  and  procedure  therein,  the 
assessment  and  collection  of  taxes,  imposts  and 
licenses,  elections,  the  support  of  the  poor,  etc. 
Some  of  them  define  crimes  and  punishments.  Oth 
ers  relate  to  property,  the  laws  of  descent,  adminis 
trators,  executors  and  guardians,  dower,  and  the 
alienation  of  real  and  personal  property.  Many  of 
them,  such  as  those  relating  to  estrays  and  tres 
passing  animals,  brands,  marks,  pounds,  markets, 
weights  and  measures,  bounties  for  wolves  and  deal 
ing  with  Indians,  are  such  as  are  found  upon  the 
early  statute  books  of  all  the  states,  and  find  ex- 
I  pression  in  many  of  our  modern  laws. 

Various  crimes  were  punished  capitally.  Some  of 
these  have  already  been  mentioned.  Others  were 
added — arson,  burglary  (third  offense),  cursing  or 
smiting  a  parent,  denial  of  the  word  of  God  (second 
offense) ,  highway  robbery  (third  offense) ,  return  of 
Jesuits  and  Quakers  after  banishment,  man-stealing, 
rape  of  a  maid  or  a  single  woman,  rebellion  and  re 
belliousness  of  a  son. 

Cutting  off  the  ears  was  the  penalty  for  burglary 
(first  and  second  offenses),  and  some  other  offenses.. 


PURITAN   LAWS,  LAWYERS    AND    COURTS.  57 

Branding    was    inflicted    for  burglary    and    high 
way  robbery,  and  also  upon  vagabond  Quakers  and 


rogues. 


Banishment  was  the  penalty  for  defamation  or  de 
nial  of  the  authority  of  the  magistrates,  and  for 
persistent  heresy.  It  was  imposed  upon  Anabaptists, 
Quakers  and  Jesuit  ecclesiastics. 

Whipping  was  the  penalty  for  a  great  number  of 
crimes,  such  as  defamation  of  the  magistrates,  dis 
obedience  of  children,  drunkenness,  firing  woods, 
fornication  with  a  single  woman,  injurious  lying, 
profanation  of  the  Lord's  day,  rescue  of  cattle  from 
pound,  reviling  the  office  or  person  of  magistrate  or 
minister,  and  theft  by  children  or  servants,  and  it 
was  also  the  penalty  for  the  first  offense  in  the  case 
of  various  crimes,  the  repetition  of  which  was  more 
severely  punished. 

Putting  in  the  stocks,  sometimes  called  "  bilboes," 
was  the  penalty  visited  upon  disorderly  soldiers, 
drunkards  and  tipplers,  and  persons  guilty  of  pro 
fane  cursing  and  some  other  misdemeanors. 

Disfranchisement  was  inflicted  upon  those  guilty  of 
defamation  of  magistrates,  fornication  and  refusal  to 
attend  public  worship. 

Fines  were  imposed  for  a  great  many  offenses. 
The  profound  religious  spirit  that  controlled  the  law 
makers  is  manifest  from  what  has  already  been  said. 
It  is  still  further  manifest  by  the  scriptural  quotation 
printed  on  the  title  page  of  the  revision  of  1660: 
"Whosoever  therefore  resisteth  the  Power,  resisteth 
the  Ordinance  of  God:  and  they  that  resist,  receive  to 
themselves  damnation.  Rom.  13,  2."  While  all  of 


58  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

these  laws  are  interesting,  as  indicating  the  character 
of  the  times,  some  of  them,  which  will  be  noticed 
more  fully  in  other  chapters,  will  attract  our  special 
attention. 

That  these  laws  were  enforced,  and  very  rigidly 
enforced,  there  is  abundant  evidence.  The  Puritans 
did  not  believe  in  dead-letter  laws.  The  old  colonial 
records  abound  in  entries  of  convictions  for  trivial 
offenses,  which  now  would  be  only  lightly  punished, 
if  punished  at  all,  where  the  sentence  was  that  the 
culprit  should  be  whipped,  or  set  in  the  bilboes,  or 
stand  in  the  market  place  with  his  tongue  in  a  cleft 
stick.1 

Nor  is  there  any  evidence  of  partiality  in  the  im 
position  of  penalties.  The  records  contain  numer 
ous  instances  of  fines  imposed  upon  assistants,  dep 
uties  and  other  officials  and  prominent  citizens. 
Women,  as  well  as  men,  were  sentenced  to  be 
whipped,  or  to  stand  with  the  tongue  in  a  cleft 
stick  for  offenses  for  which  such  punishments  were 
the  penalties.  In  at  least  one  case  it  seems  that  the 
authorities  leaned  rather  too  strongly  against  the 
woman,  and  in  favor  of  the  man,  for  it  is  recorded 
that :  u  George  Palmer  having  committed  folly  with 
Margary  Ruggs,  through  her  allurement,  because  hee 
confessed  voluntarily,  hee  was  onely  set  in  the  stocks 
and  so  dismissed.  Margary  Ruggs,  for  entising  and 
alluring  George  Palmer  was  censured  to  be  severely 
whipped." 

Further  illustrations  of  the  severity  with  which  the 
laws  were  enforced  are  given  in  other  chapters.  Nor 

1  See  Hutchinson,  Vol.  i,  p.  384-5;  Hudson's  His.  Marlborough,  242, 
244. 


PURITAN   LAWS,  LAWYERS   AND   COURTS.  59 

was  any  partiality  shown  by  reason  of  rank  or 
station.  One  amongst  the  first  to  be  punished  was 
Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  who,  in  1630,  was  fined  £5 
for  whipping  two  persons  when  no  other  assistant 
was  present.  Endicott,  who  was  then  an  assistant, 
was  provoked  into  committing  an  assault  and  battery 
upon  one  Dexter ;  thereupon  the  former  was  tried  by 
a  jury  and  fined  40  shillings.1 

The  laws  already  referred  to  (and  there  were  many 
others  of  the  same  kind),  show  that  nothing  was  ex 
empt  from  the  close  supervision  of  the  commonwealth. 
It  exercised,  even  in  matters  of  a  purely  domestic  and 
social  character,  a  surveillance  that  would  not  now  be 
thought  of,  much  less  tolerated.  The  laws  regulating 
apparel,  the  catechising  of  children  and  servants, 
and  others  of  like  character,  are  noted  more  fully  in 
other  chapters.  So  far  as  they  could  do  so,  the  mag 
istrates  sought  even  to  invade  men's  hearts  and  drag 
out  their  secret  thoughts  and  pass  judgment  upon 
them. 

Lynn  was  settled  in  1629.  In  Lewis's  history  of 
the  town,  copious  extracts  are  given  from  the  records 
of  the  quarterly  courts,  which  are  probably  fair  sam 
ples  of  what  appears  in  the  records  of  other  towns, 
covering  the  same  periods,  and  which  give  us  a  good 
idea  of  what  conduct  was  regarded  as  criminal  in 
those  days  and  of  the  kind  of  punishments  inflicted. 

Roger  Scott,  in  1643,  was  presented  "for  common 
sleeping  at  the  public  exercise  upon  the  Lord's  day, 
and  for  striking  him  that  waked  him,"  and  in  De 
cember  following,  as  he  still  persisted  in  going  to 

1  Palfrey,  Vol.  i,  p.  327. 


60  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

sleep  at  meeting,  he  was  sentenced  "  to  be  severely 
whipped."  In  1644  William  Hewes  and  John,  his 
son,  were  presented  "  for  deriding  such  as  Sing  in 
the  Congregation,  tearming  them  fools,  also  William 
Hewes  for  saying  Mr.  Whiting  preaches  confusedly." 
In  1645  Samuel  Bennett  was  presented  "  for  saying 
in  a  scornful  manner,  he  neither  cared  for  the  Towne, 
nor  any  order  the  Towne  could  make."  In  1649 
"  Mathew  Stanley  was  tried  for  winning  the  affec 
tions  of  John  Tarbox's  daughter  without  the  consent 
of  her  parents.  He  was  fined  £5  with  2s  6d  fees. 
The  parents  of  the  young  woman  were  allowed  six 
shillings  for  their  attendance  three  days."  In  the 
same  year  Nicholes  Pinion  was  fined  for  swearing, 

" all  his  pumpkins  were  turned  to  squashes." 

In  1652,  Ester,  wife  of  Joseph  Jynkes,  was  presented 
"for  wearing  silver  lace" ;  Robert  Burgess  "for  bad 
corn-grinding,"  and  other  persons  " for  wearing  great 
boots  and  silk  hoods' ' ;  and  William  Witter  was  pre 
sented  "for  neglecting  the  public  ordinances  and  be 
ing  rebaptized."  In  1667,  Nathaniel  Kertland, 
John  Witt  and  Ephraim  Hall  were  presented  "  for 
prophaning  the  Lords  day  By  Going  to  William 
Craft's  house  in  time  of  publike  exercise  (they  both 
being  at  meeting)  and  Drinkeing  of  his  sider  and 
Resting  his  Apples  without  eyther  the  consent  or 
knowledge  of  him  or  his  wife." 

To  enforce  the  laws  required  a  great  number  of 
local  officials.  Mr.  Howard  has  given  us  a  list  of 
"the  vast  number  of  minor  public  functionaries" 
employed  by  the  different  towns,  and  says  that 
"there  seems  to  have  been  a  restless  anxiety  in 


PURITAN   LAWS,  LAWYERS    AND    COURTS.  6 1 

these  little  democracies  to  bring  every  possible  sub 
ject  within  the  purview  of  the  town  meeting  or  the 
magistrates  chosen  by  it.  There  was  a  minute  inter 
ference  with  private  business ;  a  degree  of  official  in 
trusion,  which  we  should  now  feel  intolerable." 

Looking  over  these  old  laws  we  must  admit  that, 
judged  by  modern  ideas,  many  of  them  were  severe 
and  oppressive.  But,  in  justice  to  the  early  Puri 
tans,  we  should  judge  them  and  their  laws  by  the 
light  which  they  had,  and  not  by  that  which  two  and 
one-half  centuries  of  study  and  experience  have  given 
us.  Nor  should  we  attribute  the  harshness  of  their 
laws  altogether  to  the  austerity  of  their  religion. 
Their  criminal  laws,  like  most  of  the  criminal  laws 
of  the  other  colonies,  were  substantial  re-enactments 
of  those  of  the  mother  country,  and  these  we  know 
were,  many  of  them,  characterized  by  penalties  far 
more  frightful  and  atrocious  than  the  offenses  they 
were  intended  to  punish. 

When  Blackstone  wrote  his  " Commentaries  on  the 
Laws  of  England,"  nearly  a  hundred  years  after  the 
end  of  the  Massachusetts  commonwealth,  he  ac 
knowledged  it  as  "  a  melancholy  truth  that  among 
the  variety  of  actions  which  men  are  daily  liable  to 
commit,  no  less  than  a  hundred  and  sixty  have  been 
declared  by  act  of  parliament  to  be  felonies  without 
benefit  of  clergy;  in  other  words,  to  be  worthy  of  in 
stant  death."  He  adds  that  so  "  dreadful  a  list, 
instead  of  diminishing,  increases  the  number  of  of 
fenders."2 

1  Local   Constitutional   History   of  the    United  States,   Chapter    on 
"  Rise  of  the  New  England  Town"  pp.  96-99. 
8  Commentaries,  Vol.  4,  p.  18. 


62  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

Hangings,  burning  people  in  the  hand,  cropping 
their  ears,  slitting  their  tongues  were  so  common  that 
standing  in  the  pillory  and  whipping  were  regarded 
as  mild  punishments. 

Not  the  slightest  conception  of  the  reformation  of 
the  offender  then  entered  into  the  minds  of  the  law 
makers  anywhere,  and  the  ruling  idea  of  most  of  the 
penal  laws  was  to  wreak  society's  vengeance  upon 
thecriminal  and,  if  he  was  a  little  worse  than  common, 
that  it  was  " easier  to  extirpate  than  to  amend"  him. 

The  graphic  picture-which  Dickens  gives  in  the ' '  Tale 
of  Two  Cities,"  of  crimes  and  criminals  in  England  in 
I77S?  is  n°t  overdrawn.  "  In  the  midst  of  these  the 
hangman,  ever  busy  and  ever  worse  than  useless, 
was  in  constant  requisition ;  now  stringing  up  long 
rows  of  miscellaneous  criminals •  now  hanging  a 
housebreaker  on  Saturday  who  had  been  taken  on 
Tuesday ;  now  burning  people  in  the  hand  at  New 
gate  by  the  dozen,  and  now  burning  pamphlets  at 
the  door  of  Westminster  Hall ;  to-day  taking  the  life 
of  an  atrocious  murderer,  and  to-morrow  of  a  wretch 
ed  pilferer  who  had  robbed  a  farmer's  boy  of  six 
pence." 

In  Dillon's  "  Oddities  of  Colonial  Legislation" 
there  is  an  extensive  collection  of  some  of  the  harsh 
est  of  the  penal  laws  of  England  and  the  American 
colonies.  A  very  cursory  examination  of  them  will 
show  that  the  early  criminal  laws  of  Massachusetts 
were  neither  much  better  nor  much  worse  than  were 
those  of  the  other  colonies. 

Much  censure  and  ridicule  has  been  heaped  upon 
the  Puritans  because  of  their  belief  in,  and  their  laws 


PURITAN    LAWS,  LAWYERS    AND    COURTS.  63 

against,  witchcraft,  but  we  have  onfy  to  consult  the 
encyclopedias  to  find  that  belief  in  witchcraft  is  a 
dreadful  delusion  which,  from  time  to  time,  has  pre 
vailed  all  over  the  world,  civilized  as  well  as  uncivil 
ized,  and  has  led  to  frightful  sacrifice  of  human  life. 
Even  Sir  William  Blackstone  in  his  Commentaries 
acknowledges  his  belief  in  it.1  The  English  statute 
against  witchcraft,  passed  during  the  reign  of  James  I, 
was  substantially  re-enacted  in  Virginia,  Maryland, 
Delaware,  South  Carolina,  Pennsylvania  and  the 
other  American  colonies,  as  well  as  in  Massachusetts. 
The  Pennsylvania  statute  continued  in  force  until 
I794.2 

But  this  much  must  be  said  of  the  Body  of  Liber 
ties  :  That  it  affirms  all  the  cardinal  principles  of 
Magna  Charta  and  the  common  law  of  England  for 
the  protection  of  the  liberty  of  the  citizen  and  the 
rights  of  property,  the  most  of  which  have  been  copied 
into  our  national  and  state  constitutions. 

Lechford,  in  "Newes  from  New  England,"  writ 
ten  in  1641,  has  given  us  an  account  of  the  courts  in 
the  early  period  of  the  commonwealth,  which,  as  he 
was  himself  a  lawyer,  may  be  depended  upon  as  be 
ing  accurate.  He  says  :3 

"There  are  two  generall  Courts,  one  every  halfe  yeare, 
wherein  they  make  Lawes  or  Ordinances.  The  Ministers 
advise  in  making  of  Laws,  some  especially  Ecclesiasticall, 
and  are  present  in  Courts,  and  advise  in  some  speciall  causes 
criminall,  and  in  framing  of  Fundamentall  Lawes.  But  not 
many  Fundamentall  Lawes  are  yet  established,  which  when 
1  Vol.  4,  p.  60. 

*  Dillon's  Oddities  of  Colonial  Legislation,  p.  32. 

*  Mass.  His.  Coll.,  3d  Ser.,  Vol.  3,  p.  83. 


64  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

they  doe,  they  must,  by  the  words  of  their  Charter,  make 
according  to  the  Laws  of  England,  or  not  contrary  there 
unto.  Here  they  make  taxes  and  levies.  There  are  besides 
foure  quarter  Courts  for  the  whole  Jurisdiction,  besides  other 
petie  Courts ,  one  every  quarter  at  Boston,  Salem,  and 
Ipswich,  with  their  severall  jurisdictions,  besides  every 
towne,  almost,  hath  a  petie  Court  for  small  debts  and  tress- 
passes  under  twenty  shillings. 

In  the  generall  Court,  or  great  quarter  Courts,  before  the 
Civill  Magistrates,  are  tryed  all  actions  and  causes  civill  and 
criminall,  and  also  Ecclesiasticall,  especially  touching  non- 
members.  And  they  themselves  say  that  in  the  generall 
and  quarter  Courts,  they  have  the  power  of  Parliament, 
Kings  Bench,  Common  Pleas,  Chancery,  High  Commission, 
and  Star  Chamber,  and  all  other  Courts  of  England,  and  in 
divers  cases  have  exercised  that  power  upon  the  Kings  Sub 
jects  there,  as  is  not  difficult  to  prove.  They  have  put  to 
death,  banished,  fined  men,  cut  off  mens  eares,  whipt,  im 
prisoned  men,  and  all  these  for  Ecclesiasticall  and  Civill 
offences  and  without  sufficient  record.  In  the  lesser  quarter 
Courts  are  tryed,  in  some,  actions  under  ten  pound,  in 
Boston,  under  twenty,  and  all  criminall  causes  not  touching 
life  or  member.  From  the  petie  quarter  Courts,  or  other 
Court,  the  parties,  may  appeale  to  the  great  quarter  Courts, 
from  these  to  the  generall  Court,  from  which  there  is  no  ap 
peale,  they  say.  Notwithstanding,  I  presume  their  Patent 
doth  reserve  and  provide  for  Appeales  in  some  cases,  to  the 
Kings  Majesty." 

The  assistants,  usually  styled  magistrates,  pre 
sided  over  the  courts  in  the  counties  where  they  re 
sided,  and  justices  of  the  peace  and  commissioners 
of  small  causes  were,  from  time  to  time,  appointed 
by  the  General  Court  to  hold  local  courts  for  the  trial 


PURITAN   LAWS,  LAWYERS    AND   COURTS.  65 

of  petty  cases.  Marshals  and  constables  were  ap 
pointed  to  serve  the  processes  of  the  various  courts. 

In  the  quarter  courts  grand  juries  were  sworn 
twice  a  year,  "  charged  to  enquire  and  present  of 
fenses  reduced  by  the  Governor,  who  gives  the 
Charge,  most  an-end,  under  the  Heads  of  the  ten 
commandments";  "matters  of  debt,  tresspasse,  and 
upon  the  case,  and  equity,  yea  and  of  heresie  also, 
are  tryed  by  a  jury."1 

The  forms  of  judicial  proceedings  were  simple, 
and  not  much  attention  was  paid  to  the  troublesome 
distinctions  which  prevailed  in  England  between  the 
forms  of  actions.  Until  1662  the  writs  did  not  even 
bear  the  king's  name. 

There  was  this  curious  provision  in  relation  to 
jurors,  which  was  probably  intended,  as  lawyers 
were  not  permitted  either  to  enlighten  or  to  befog 
them,  to  enable  them  to  consult  the  "  minister"  : 
"Whenever  any  Jurie  of  trialls  or  jurours  are  not 
cleare  in  their  judgments  or  consciences  conserning 
any  cause  wherein  they  are  to  give  their  verdict,  they 
shall  have  libertie  in  open  court  to  advise  with  any 
man  they  thinke  fitt  to  resolve  or  direct  them,  before 
they  give  in  their  verdict." 

Lechford  complained  that  "seldome  is  there  any 
matter  of  record,  saving  the  verdict,  many  times  at 
randome  taken  and  entered,  which  is  also  called  the 
judgment.  And,  for  want  of  proceeding  duly  en 
tered  upon  record,  the  government  is  cleare ly  arbi 
trary,  according  to  the  discretions  of  the  Judges  and 
Magistrates  for  the  time  being." 

1  Lechford. 

PUR.  REP. — s 


66  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

But  this  evil  was  remedied  in  1639  by  an  order 
made  reciting  the  evils  consequent  upon  the  rendi 
tion  of  judgments  "  whereof  no  records  are  kept  of 
the  evidence  &  reasons  whereupon  the  verdict  & 
judgment  did  passe,"  and  providing  "that  thence 
forward  every  judgment,  with  all  the  evidence,  bee 
recorded  in  a  booke  to  be  kept  to  posterity."1 

At  the  beginning  of  the  commonwealth  there  were 
not  a  great  many  law  books  even  in  England.  What 
there  were  are  mentioned  by  Chancellor  Kent  in  his 
Commentaries.2  Most  of  these  were  written  in  a  dia 
lect  unintelligible  to  most  persons  except  judges  and 
lawyers.  In  1647  the  General  Court  made  this  pro 
vision:  "  It  is  agreed  by  the  Court,  to  the  end  we  may 
have  the  better  light  for  making  and  proceeding 
about  laws,  that  there  shall  be  these  books  following 
procured  for  the  use  of  the  Court  from  time  to  time: 
Two  of  Sir  Edw.  Cooke  upon  Littleton;  two  of  the 
book  of  Entryes;  two  of  Sir  Edw.  Cooke  upon 
Magna  Charta;  two  of  the  New  Terms  of  Law; 
two  Daltons  Justice  of  Peace;  two  of  Sir  Edwd. 
Cooke' s  Reports." 

But  limited  as  was  the  supply  of  law  books,  the 
supply  of  lawyers  was  still  more  limited.  The  sup 
ply,  however,  exceeded  the  demand.  It  is  not  meant 
by  this  that  the  colonists  were  all  destitute  of  legal 
learning.  There  were  several  who  had  received  a 
legal  education  in  England;  and  that  there  were  some 

1  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  275.  Prof.  Emory  Washburn,  a  writer  of  ac 
knowledged  authority,  has  fully  explained  the  organization,  jurisdiction 
and  procedure  of  the  courts  of  the  commonwealth  in  the  Judicial  His 
tory  of  Massachusetts. 

*  Lectures )  12  and  22. 


PURITAN   LAWS,  LAWYERS   AND    COURTS.  67 

among  the  colonists  who  understood  the  cardinal 
principles  of  English  law  is  evident  from  the  Body 
of  Liberties.  Ward,  who  is  said  to  have  compiled 
them,  graduated  at  Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge,  in 
1603,  and  studied  and  practiced  law  in  England,  and 
we  have  no  reason  to  doubt  his  statement  in  the 
"  Simple  Cobbler"  that  he  had  "  read  almost  all  the 
Common  Law  of  England  and  some  Statutes."  But 
it  is  certain  that  in  the  days  of  the  Puritan  common 
wealth  the  professional  lawyer  was  almost,  if  not 
quite,  ignored  in  the  administration  of  the  govern 
ment.  Prof.  Washburn  says  that  u  it  was  many 
years  after  the  settlement  of  the  colony  before  any 
thing  like  a  distinct  class  of  Attorneys  at  Law  were 
known.  And  it  is  doubtful  if  there  were  any  regu 
larly  educated  Attorneys  who  practiced  in  the  courts 
of  the  colony  at  any  time  during  its  existence."1 
Palfrey  states  that  so  late  as  the  time  of  the  witch 
craft  trials,  a  few  years  after  the  expiration  of  the 
commonwealth,  "  there  were  no  trained  lawyers  in 
the  Province." 

That  the  profession  had  become  almost  extinct 
during  the  commonwealth  period  appears  from  a  let 
ter  written  by  Edward  Randolph  to  Mr.  Povey  in 
1687,  wherein  he  says:  "I  have  wrote  you  of  the 
want  we  have  of  two  or  three  honest  attorneys  (if  any 
such  thing  in  nature).  We  have  but  two,  one  is 
West's  creature,  come  with  him  from  New  York,  and 
drives  all  before  him.  He  also  takes  extravagant  fees, 
and  for  want  of  more,  the  country  can  not  avoid  com- 

1  Judicial  History  of  Mass.,  p.  50. 


68  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

ing  to  him,  so  that  we  had  better  be  quite  without 
them  than  not  to  have  more."1 

The  drawing  of  wills,  deeds,  and  other  legal  writ 
ings  was  usually  done  by  the  justices  and  ministers. 
The  practice  of  the  ministers  doing  such  work  was 
continued  far  into  the  eighteenth  century.  The  Rev. 
John  Swift  of  Framingham,  who  was  ordained  there 
in  1701  and  died  in  1745,  seems  to  have  written  most 
of  the  wills  of  the  inhabitants  there  during  that 
period.2 

A  litigant,  u  finding  himselfe  unfit  to  plead  his 
owne  cause  in  any  Court,"  had  liberty  "  to  imploy 
any  man  against  whom  the  Court  doth  not  except,  to 
help  him,  provided  he  give  him  noe  fee  or  reward  for 
his  paines."  We  might  infer  that  this  was  simply  a 
re-enactment  of  the  old  English  law  which  forbade 
counsel  receiving  a  fee,  leaving  him  to  such  gratuity 
as  the  client  might  choose  to  give  him,  and  that  this 
was  all  the  disability  under  which  the  lawyer  labored. 
But  this  was  not  all.  The  lawyers  were  never  in 
favor  with  the  persons  in  authority  in  the  common 
wealth.  Two  of  the  men  who  had  early  raised  dis 
turbances  in  the  infant  commonwealth — Samuel 
Browne  and  Thomas  Morton — had  been  lawyers  in 
England.  Morton  of  "  Merry  Mount"  had,  it  is 
said,  been  a  "  pettifogger  at  Furnival's  Inn."  Gov. 
Bellingham  had  also  been  a  lawyer,  but  he  was  not  a 
popular  governor.  Winthrop,  like  his  father  and 
grandfather,  had  been  trained  in  England  as  a  lawyer, 
but  Winthrop  rose  superior  to  any  prejudice  on  this 

1  Washburn,  Judicial  His.  Mass.,  p.  104. 

2  Barry's  History  Framingham,  p.  86. 


PURITAN   LAWS,  LAWYERS    AND    COURTS.  69 

account  as  he  did  to  all  others.  Jesus  himself  had 
denounced  the  lawyers.  "Woe  unto  you  also  ye 
lawyers ;  for  ye  lade  men  with  burdens  grievous  to 
be  borne  and  ye  yourselves  touch  not  the  burdens 
with  one  of  your  fingers."  And,  though  this  was 
said  more  than  sixteen  hundred  years  before,  what 
evidence  was  there  that  the  lawyers  had  reformed 
their  wicked  ways  ? 

In  1663  a  law  was  enacted  by  the  General  Court 
wherein  it  was  expressly  provided  "that  no  person 
who  is  an  usual  and  Common  Attorney  in  any  In 
ferior  Court  shall  be  admitted  to  sit  as  a  Deputy  in 
this  Court." 

When  parties  had  not  the  ability  to  prosecute  or 
to  defend  their  suits  it  was  allowable  to  get  some 
one  to  represent  them,  and  the  "patrons,"  as  the 
persons  chosen  were  sometimes  called,  acted  as  at 
torneys.  Amongst  those  who  so  acted  in  the  com 
monwealth  period  Prof.  Washburn  mentions  John 
Coggan,  Watson  and  Checkly,  who  were  merchants, 
Amos  Richardson,  a  tailor,  and  Bullivant,  a  physi 
cian  and  apothecary. 

There  was,  however,  one  lawyer,  who  made  his 
mark  as  such  in  the  history  of  the  commonwealth, 
because,  for  a  period  of  about  four  years,  as  Prof. 
Washburn  happily  puts  it,  "he  flourished  as  the 
whole  profession — the  embodied  bar  of  Massachusetts 
Bay."  Thomas  Lechford  came  to  Boston  in  1637,  and 
tried  to  make  a  living  by  practicing  law,  but  he  got 
into  trouble  by  "  going  to  the  jury  and  pleading  with 
them  out  of  court !,"  and  he  was  therefore  sentenced 
by  the  General  Court  to  be  "  disbarred  from  pleading 


70  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

any  mans  cause  hereafter,  unlesse  his  owne,  &  ad 
monished  not  to  presume  to  meddle  beyond  that  hee 
shall  be  called  to  by  the  Courte."  Afterwards  we 
read  that  "Mr.  Thomas  Lechford,  acknowledging 
hee  had  overshot  himself  &  is  sorry  for  it,  promissing 
to  attend  his  calling  &  not  to  meddle  with  contro 
versies,  was  dismissed."  But  according  to  Mr. 
Scudder,1  the  magistrates  made  it  uncomfortable  for 
him ;  he  was  regarded  with  suspicion  and  was  soon 
"snuffed  out"  and  left  the  colony.  He  returned  to 
England  in  1641,  and  in  1642  he  published  a  pam 
phlet  entitled  "Plain  Dealing  or  Newes  from  New 
England,"  in  which  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  ex 
pressing  his  opinions  of  the  Massachusetts  authorities 
without  fear  of  fine  or  "bilboes." 

As  a  matter  of  course,  where  there  were  no  trained 
lawyers,  we  should  not  expect  to  find  judges  learned 
in  the  law.  Few  of  the  men  who  sat  in  the  General 
Court  or  in  the  inferior  courts  had  any  legal  educa 
tion  ;  all  consulted  the  ministers  on  doubtful  ques 
tions.  The  Bible  rule,  if  one  could  be  found,  was 
always  to  be  followed.  A  few  of  the  assistants,  as 
has  been  stated,  had  been  educated  as  lawyers.  But 
Prof.  Washburn2  says  that  "if  they  made  use  of  their 
legal  acquirements,  it  was  in  aid  of  the  great  object 
which  they  had  so  much  at  heart — the  establishment 
of  a  religious  commonwealth  in  which  the  laws  of 
Moses  were  much  more  regarded  as  precedents  than 
the  decisions  of  Westminster  Hall,  or  the  pages  of 

1  Life  in  Boston  in  the  Colonial  Period,  Mem.  His.  of  Boston,  Vol.  I, 
P-  503- 

2  Judicial  History  of  Afass.,  p.  50. 


PURITAN   LAWS,  LAWYERS   AND    COURTS.  7 1 

the  few  elementary  writers  upon  the  common  law 
which  were  then  cited  in  the  English  courts." 

Of  the  seven  judges  who  presided  at  the  witchcraft 
trials.  Palfrey  states  that  "Stoughton  and  Sewall  had 
been  educated  for  the  pulpit ;  two  of  their  five  asso 
ciates  were  physicians  5  one  was  a  merchant ;  not  one 
was  a  lawyer." 

One  of  the  judges  who  went  upon  the  bench  short 
ly  before  the  expiration  of  the  commonwealth  period, 
and  whose  name  has  come  down  to  us,  was  Samuel 
Sewall,  afterwards  chief  justice  of  Massachusetts. 
Palfrey  speaks  of  him  as  a  man  of  "  timid  conscien 
tiousness,"  under  the  sway  of  Stoughton  in  the  witch 
craft  trials,  but  a  "much  respected"  man. 

He  was  a  graduate  of  Harvard,  and  had  been 
educated  for  the  ministry,  but  had  not  received  a 
legal  education.  Nevertheless,  he  endeavored  after 
wards  to  make  up  for  his  lack  of  legal  education, 
for  in  his  "Letter-Book"1  we  find  a  letter  writ 
ten  by  him  in  1704  to  Mr.  Thomas  Newton, 
directing  him  to  buy  for  him  in  London  "all  the 
statutes  at  large  made  since  Mr.  Keebles  edition 
(Kebles  Statutes)  1684.  Let  them  be  well  Bound 
in  one  or  two  Covers  as  shall  be  most  convenient. 
The  Register  (Registrum  de  Cancellaria) ,  Cromp- 
ton  (Jurisdiction  of  divers  Courts) ,  Bracton  Britton, 
Fleta,  Mirror  (Horn's  Miroir  des  Justices);  as  many 
of  them  as  you  can  get  in  Latin  or  English;  Heaths 
Pleadings,  Sir  Edward  Cokes  Reports." 

That  he  was  an  upright  and  conscientious  judge, 
there  is  no  doubt.  In  a  few  instances  wherein  he 

1  Letters,  Mass.  His.  Coll.,  6th  Ser.,  Vol.  i,  p.  310. 


72  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

had  erred,  or  thought  that  he  had  erred,  in  the  dis 
charge  of  his  judicial  duties,  he  was  very  much 
grieved  when  he  afterwards  became  satisfied  that 
injustice  had  been  done.  This  was  so  in  the  case  of 
the  widow  Bellingham,  and  notably  so  in  relation  to 
the  witchcraft  trials,  for  after  he  became  satisfied  that 
the  belief  in  witches  was  a  miserable  delusion  he 
made  a  public  acknowledgment  in  the  church  of  his 
sorrow  for  the  part  that  he  had  taken  in  these  trials. 
When  Justice  Davenport,  in  1719,  was  going  to 
try  Samuel  Smith,  of  Sandwich,  for  killing  his 
negro,  Judge  Sewall  wrote  him  a  letter  containing 
"these  Quotations  and  my  own  Sentiments,"  which 
were  that: 

"  The  poorest  Boys  and  Girls  within  this  Province,  such 
as  are  of  the  lowest  condition ;  whether  they  be  English  or 
Indians  or  Ethiopians.  They  have  the  same  Right  to  Re 
ligion  and  Life,  that  the  Richest  Heirs  have. 

"  And  they  who  go  about  to  deprive  them  of  this  Right, 
they  attempt  the  bombarding  of  Heaven ;  and  the  Shells 
they  throw  will  fall  down  upon  their  own  heads."1 

He  was  an  earnest  opponent  of  slavery,  and  his 
pamphlet  on  "  The  Selling  of  Joseph  "  was  the  begin 
ning  of  the  movement  which  resulted  in  the  abolition 
of  negro  slavery  in  Massachusetts. 

We  can,  therefore,  well  afford  to  overlook  some 
lack  of  legal  learning  in  a  judge  of  that  period  who 
had  so  many  good  qualities. 

It  is  not,  however,  as  a  jurist  that  Judge  Sewall  is 
best  known  to  those  of  the  present  day.  He  kept  a 
diary.  It  is  difficult  to  account  for  that  mental 

1  Letters,  Mass.  His.  Coll.,  6th  Ser.,  Vol.  2,  p.  101. 


PURITAN    LAWS,  LAWYERS   AND    COURTS.  73 

idiosyncrasy  which  prompts  a  man  to  keep  a  diary 
of  his  daily  actions  and  thoughts,  and  leave  it  for 
other  people  to  pry  into  long  after  he  is  dead  and 
gone.  It  is  still  more  difficult  to  understand  why  his 
descendants  should  permit  such  a  diary  to  be  pub 
lished.  Nevertheless,  we  are  under  lasting  obliga 
tions  to  the  descendants  of  Judge  Sewall  for  permit 
ting  his  diary  and  also  his  letters  to  be  published, 
and  to  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  for  publish 
ing  them.  In  the  three  volumes  of  "Sewall  Papers,'* 
containing  the  diary,  and  the  two  containing  the 
letters,  we  have  records  of  great  historic  value.1 

In  them  the  judge  has  given  us  not  only  a  record 
of  many  public  events,  but  also  a  record  of  the  cus 
toms  and  habits  and  fashions  of  the  times.  More 
than  this,  he  has  given  us  the  minutest  details  of  his 
own  life  and  has  laid  bare  his  innermost  thoughts. 
We  see  in  these  volumes  the  man,  just  as  he  was, 
with  all  his  faults,  his  motives,  his  aspirations,  and  in 
the  pages  written  after  the  death  of  his  first  wife,  and 
especially  in  those  which  record  his  subsequent  court 
ships,  the  foibles  of  an  old  man.  But  we  see,  also, 
the  picture  of  an  honest  and  thoroughly  conscientious 
man,  and,  if  we  smile  at  or  censure  some  things  we 
find  in  his  character,  we  must  admit  that  other  peo 
ple  might  smile  at  or  censure  us  if  we  were  to  give  to 
the  world  as  truthful  a  record  of  our  own  lives  and 
thoughts  as  Judge  Sewall  has  given  of  his. 

1  The  diary  covers  a  period  beginning  in  1674  and  ending  in  1729,  and 
is  reprinted  in  three  volumes,  entitled  Se-ivall  Papers;  the  letters  begin 
in  1685  and  end  in  1734,  and  are  reprinted  in  two  volumes,  entitled 
Seivairs  Letter-Book.  The  diary  is  contained  in  volumes  5,  6  and  7 
(5th  Series),  and  the  letters  in  volumes  i  and  2  (6th  Series)  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Collections. 


74  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

In  view  of  the  almost  total  lack  of  lawyers  and 
judges  skilled  in  the  learning  of  the  legal  profession, 
it  is  not  surprising  that  during  the  whole  of  the  com 
monwealth  period,  there  was  little  or  no  development 
of  the  law  as  a  science,  or  of  the  character  of  the  judi 
ciary.  Some  of  the  consequent  evils  speedily  became 
manifest.  Litigation  was  cheap  and  thus  encouraged 
the  bringing  of  many  trifling  suits. 

The  suitors  usually  knew  but  little  law;  their  at 
torneys  knew  but  little  more,  and  the  judges  knew 
but  little  more  than  the  attorneys,  and  so  much  time 
was  wasted  "  by  reason  of  the  many  and  tedious 
discourses  and  pleadings  in  Court,  both  of  plaintiff 
and  defendant,  as  also  the  readiness  of  many  to  pros 
ecute  suits  in  law  for  small  matters,"  that  in  order  to 
discourage  this,  a  law  was  passed  in  1656,  imposing 
a  penalty  of  twenty  shillings  an  hour  upon  every  liti 
gant  who  should  plead  "  by  himself  or  his  Attorney 
for  a  longer  time  than  one  hour" 

Another  evil  was  that,  for  want  of  lawyers  prop 
erly  to  present  their  cases  in  court,  it  became  cus 
tomary  for  suitors  to  consult  the  magistrates  pri 
vately  and  so  get  a  favorable  opinion  upon  ex  -parte 
statements  made  out  of  court,  and  this  evil  grew  to 
such  proportions  that  it  was  at  last  prohibited  by  law, 
although  some  of  the  magistrates  themselves  made 
strenuous  opposition  to  the  passage  of  the  law.1 

Besides  these  and  other  obvious  evil  consequences 
resulting  from  the  absence  of  lawyers  and  judges 
skilled  in  their  profession,  there  is  one  that  should 
not  be  overlooked,  especially  in  estimating  the  influ- 

1  Winthrop,  Vol.  2,  p.  36;  Mass.  Col.  Laws,  1660-1672,  p.  141. 


PURITAN    LAWS,  LAWYERS    AND    COURTS.  75 

ence  of  the  clergy  in  the  colonial  period,  and  that  is 
the  lack  of  the  conservative  influence  of  the  legal 
profession. 

Of  late  years  the  influence  of  the  lawyer  in  politics 
and  in  legislation  has  yielded  to  that  of  the  profes 
sional  politician  and  waned  before  the  glaring  splen 
dor  of  the  millionaire.  In  some  periods,  particular 
ly  in  times  of  great  financial  distress,  opposition  has 
been  manifested  to  lawyers.  But  as  a  general  rule, 
from  a  period  long  before  the  Revolution,  the  law 
yers  have  exercised  a  great  influence  in  both  the  na 
tional  and  state  governments  of  this  country.  And 
that  influence  has  always  been  enlisted  on  the  side  of 
conservatism,  and  generally  on  the  side  of  the  car 
dinal  principles  of  constitutional  government.  This 
is  the  tendency  of  a  thorough  legal  education.  Pal 
frey  says1  that  " though  not  seldom  biased,  and  some 
times  even  corrupted,  by  power,  the  instincts  of  legal 
science  have  always  been  among  the  main  safeguards 
of  the  liberties  of  the  English  race." 

Bryce  in  his  " American  Commonwealth"  thinks 
the  American  lawyers  are  even  more  conservative  than 
their  English  brethren.2  De  Tocqueville3  pays  this 
high  compliment  to  the  lawyers  as  a  class  : 

' '  The  more  we  reflect  upon  all  that  occurs  in  the  United 
States  the  more  shall  we  be  persuaded  that  the  lawyers,  as  a 
body,  form  the  most  powerful,  if  not  the  only  counterpoise 
to  the  democratic  element.  In  that  country  we  perceive 
how  eminently  the  legal  profession  is  qualified  by  its  pow- 

1  Vol  i,  p.  249. 

2  Vol.  2,  chapter  on  "  The  Bar." 
Democracy  in  America,  Vol.  I,  Chap.  16. 


76  THE  PURITA:;  i:zru::Lic. 

ers,  and  even  by  its  defects,  to  neutralize  the  vices  which 
are  inherent  in  popular  government.  When  the  American 
people  is  intoxicated  by  passion,  or  carried  away  by  the 
impetuosity  of  its  ideas,  it  is  checked  and  stopped  by  the 
almost  invisible  influence  of  its  legal  counsellors,  who  se 
cretly  oppose  their  aristocratic  propensities  to  its  democratic 
instincts,  their  superstitious  attachment  to  what  is  antique  to 
its  love  of  novelty,  their  narrow  views  to  its  immense  de 
signs,  and  their  habitual  procrastination  to  its  ardent  im 
patience." 

It  would  have  been  better  for  the  authorities  of  the 
commonwealth  if  they  had  heeded  the  advice  of 
Lechford : 

"  I  feare,-"  he  said,  "it  is  not  a  little  degree  of  pride  and 
dangerous  improvidence  to  slight  all  former  lawes  of  the 
Church  or  State,  cases  of  experience  and  precedents,  to  go 
to  hammer  out  new,  according  to  the  Severall  exigencies, 
upon  pretence  that  the  Word  of  God  is  sufficient  to  rule  us. 
It  is  true,  it  is  sufficient,  if  well  understood.  But  take 
heede  my  brethren,  despise  not  learning,  nor  the  worthy 
Lawyers  of  either  gown,  lest  you  repent  too  late." 


IV 

THE  PURITANS  AND  THE  INDIANS 

SOME  years  before  the  coming  of  Winthrop  and 
his  companions  there  had  been  a  great  plague,  which 
swept  off  large  numbers  of  the  native  population 
then  inhabiting  the  domain  covered  by  the  patent  of 
the  Massachusetts  Company.  But  there  were  still 
left  those  who  claimed  a  right  to  the  soil. 

Just  what  kind  of  right  this  was  it  is  difficult  to  de 
fine  according  to  any  well-settled  rule  of  law  or 
ethics.  Nothing  bearing  the  semblance  of  an  organ 
ized  government  existed.  The  boundaries  between 
the  different  tribes  were  unknown  or  disputed.  Only 
small  tracts  of  land  were  occupied  by  the  natives. 
The  great  body  of  the  territory  was  occupied  only 
occasionally,  and  then  only  while  it  was  being  trav 
ersed  by  hunting  parties.  It  is  difficult,  upon  such 
foundations,  to  prove  that  the  natives  had  such  a  title 
as  justified  them  in  claiming  the  absolute  ownership 
of  a  continent. 

Still,  as  shown  in  the  preceding  chapter,  their 
right  or  title,  whatever  it  was,  was  recognized  by  a 
law  passed  by  the  General  Court  in  1652.  The  same 
law  protected  the  Indians  from  unlawful  intrusion 
upon  their  planting  grounds,  or  fishing  places,  and 
prohibited  the  buying  of  lands  from  them,  unless  the 
purchases  were  authorized  by  license  secured  from 
the  General  Court. 

(77) 


78  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

The  uncontrollable  appetite  of  the  Indians  for  in 
toxicating  liquor  was  early  manifest,  and  stringent 
laws  were  enacted  to  prevent  the  sale  of  intoxicants 
to  them.1 

All  efforts  to  induce  them  to  adopt  the  methods  of 
civilized  life  were  unavailing  at  that  time,  as  they  have 
been  since.  Something  in  their  nature  made  them 
prefer  the  freedom  of  the  forest  to  the  restraints  and 
burdens  of  civilized  life. 

Earnest  efforts  were  made  to  convert  them  to 
Christianity,  but  with  little  success,  and  the  "  Pray 
ing  Indians,"  as  they  were  called,  seem  to  have  been 
on  occasion  as  zealous  as  their  barbarian  brethren  in 
scalping  their  white  neighbors.  The  Apostle  Eliot 
had  labored  with  such  success  among  the  Indians 
that  several  towns  of  u  Praying  Indians,"  number 
ing  some  1,200,  were  established  near  Framingham, 
including  the  Naticks,  one  of  whose  chief  men  was 
Aponapawquin,  commonly  known  as  "Old  Jacob." 
Of  him  it  is  narrated  that  he  was  u  amongst  the  first 
that  prayed  to  God,"  and  that  "  he  had  so  good  a 
memory  that  he  could  rehearse  the  whole  catechism, 
both  questions  and  answers."2  Nevertheless  one  of 
the  first  acts  of  barbarity  that  signalized  the  breaking 
out  of  King  Philip's  war  was  the  destruction  of  the 
house  of  Thomas  Eames,  situate  within  the  bounda 
ries  of  the  Framingham  Plantation,  the  murder  of  his 
wife  and  three  or  four  of  his  children,  and  the  carrying 
of  the  rest  away  into  captivity,  and  one  of  the  partici 
pants  in  this  bloody  massacre  was  the  pious  "  Old 

1  Col.  Laws,  1660-1672,  pp.  161-236. 

2  Barry's  Hist.  Framingham,  17;  Mass.  Hist.  Col.,  ist  Ser.,  Vol.  9,  p. 
198;  5  Id.  264. 


THE    PURITANS    AND    THE    INDIANS.  79 

Jacob."  Indeed  all  that  we  can  learn  about  the 
"  Praying  Indians  "  seems  to  corroborate  Sheldon's 
assertion,  that  in  King  Philip's  war  "  these  pious 
lambs  proved  the  worst  wolves  of  the  whole  bloody 


crew."1 


It  could  scarcely  be  expected  that  two  races,  differ 
ing  so  radically  in  so  many  ways,  could  live  peace 
ably  for  any  great  length  of  time  in  the  same  land. 
Nor  is  it  of  much  importance  now  to  determine  what 
were  the  precise  causes  of  the  bloody  conflict  which 
afterward  ensued,  and  to  apportion  the  blame.  The 
conflict  was  as  inevitable  and  as  irrepressible  as 
that  between  freedom  and  slavery  on  this  continent. 

It  was  very  soon  manifest  that  the  Indians  looked 
with  unkindly  eyes  on  the  increase  of  their  white 
neighbors,  and  were  plotting  their  extermination. 
Trouble  soon  began  with  the  Pequots,  the  most  power 
ful  of  the  tribes  then  inhabiting  the  territory  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Massachusetts  Company.  Their 
chief,  Sassacus,  endeavored  to  form  an  alliance  with 
their  ancient  enemies,  the  Narragansetts,  in  order  to 
drive  from  the  land  those  whom  he  denominated  the 
foes  of  all  of  them,  and  who  would,  he  argued  with 
savage  foresight,  unless  exterminated,  in  time  ex 
terminate  them. 

The  situation  of  the  colonists  was  precarious.  Only 
their  possession  and  knowledge  of  the  use  of  fire 
arms  enabled  them  to  hold  their  own  against  the 
vastly  superior  numbers  of  the  Indians.  And  even 
this  advantage  would  have  proved  unavailing  if  the 
Indians  had  then  formed  the  coalition  which  Philip 

1  Hist.  Deer  field,  Vol.  I,  p.  140. 


So  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

effected  in  later  years.  But  the  Narragansetts 
hesitated  between  the  arguments  of  Sassacus  and 
their  hatred  of  their  ancient  foes.  Roger  Williams 
visited  them  and  added  his  efforts  to  induce  them  to 
side  with  the  colonists,  and  at  last  the  Narragansetts 
entered  into  an  alliance  with  the  latter.  Still  the 
Narragansetts  were  a  doubtful  quantity.  They  did 
not  love  their  white  neighbors  and  they  feared  the 
Pequots.  A  defeat  of  the  colonists,  or  any  wavering 
on  their  part  at  this  juncture,  would  have  been  fatal. 
In  such  a  contingency  the  Narragansetts,  if  they  had 
not  deserted  to  the  side  of  the  Pequots,  would  have 
been  awed  by  them  into  neutrality.  It  was  necessary, 
therefore,  for  the  colonists  to  meet  the  emergency 
promptly  and  boldly,  and  this  they  did.  In  1637 
Capt.  Stoughton  took  the  field  with  160  men  from 
Massachusetts,  Capt.  Mason  commanding  the  Con 
necticut  forces,  who  were  joined  by  some  200  of  the 
Narragansetts ;  but  the  latter  were  so  terrified  by  the 
name  of  Sassacus  that  half  of  them  deserted. 

The  war  was  short  and  decisive.  Mason  and 
Stoughton  boldly  attacked  the  Indians  in  their  strong 
holds,  routed  them,  and  almost  annihilated  them. 
Sassacus  fled,  and  it  is  supposed  that  he  was  mur 
dered  by  the  Mohawks  or  became  a  member  of  that 
tribe.  Some  of  the  survivors  of  the  Pequots  were 
sold  as  slaves  in  the  Bermudas,  some  were  mingled 
with  other  Indian  tribes,  and  the  identity  of  the  rem 
nant  was  forever  lost. 

Much  denunciation  has  been  heaped  upon  the  Pu 
ritans  for  what  has  been  termed  their  cruel  slaughter 
of  the  Pequots,  and  Oliver  attempts  to  show  how  all 


THE    PURITANS   AND    THE    INDIANS.  8 1 

the  colonial  leaders  in  the  Pequot  war  afterwards  suf 
fered  from  Divine  vengeance  for  the  part  they  took 
in  it. 

We  all  agree  that  there  is  not  much  humanity  in 
war,  but  it  is  generally  conceded  that,  when  it  has 
actually  begun,  the  speediest  way  to  restore  peace  is 
to  make  the  war  as  destructive  to  the  enemy  as  pos 
sible.  No  hostile  army  was  ever  vanquished,  no  in 
surrection  was  ever  suppressed,  by  firing  paper  wads. 

The  alternative  presented  to  the  colonists  in  the 
Pequot  war  was  whether  they  should  exterminate 
the  Pequots  or  allow  the  Pequots  to  exterminate  them, 
and  the  colonists  chose  the  former  course.  What 
the  result  would  have  been  if  Sassacus  had  succeeded 
in  his  scheme  to  unite  the  Indians  is  confessed  by  Ol 
iver,1  apparently  with  a  tinge  of  disappointment. 

"An  aboriginal  coalition,"  he  says,  "  first  suggested  by 
the  Pequot  chief,  and  afterwards  carried  into  such  terrible 
effect  by  King  Philip,  at  this  early  period  might  have  re 
sulted  in  the  extermination  of  the  English ;  and  some  soli 
tary  ship,  afterwards  touching  at  Massachusetts  Bay,  would 
have  beheld  the  stillness  of  the  wilderness  where  was  ex 
pected  the  busy  hum  of  life,  and  have  carried  home  the 
startling  news  that  transatlantic  Puritanism  had  disap 
peared." 

The  boldness  and  promptness  of  the  colonists  had 
a  salutary  effect  upon  the  rest  of  the  Indians  who, 
as  Hutchinson  says,2  were  u  thereby  brought  to  be 
more  afraid  of  the  English  and  restrained  from  open 
hostilities  near  forty  years  together." 

^•Puritan  Commonwealth,  p.  118. 
2  Vol.  i,  p.  80. 

PUR.  REP.— 6 


82  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

But,  though  the  Indians  were  not  openly  so,  it  was 
certain  that  they  were  hostile,  and  only  awaited  a 
favorable  opportunity  to  begin  their  savage  warfare. 
There  were  troubles  and  imminent  danger  of  war 
with  the  Narragansetts  and  then  with  the  Nyantics. 
Events  were  moving  steadily .  along  toward  a  re 
newal  of  the  irrepressible  conflict  with  the  certainty 
of  fate.  Treaties  had  been  made  and  signed  by 
those  who,  as  the  Indians  claimed,  had  no  authority 
to  make  and  sign  them,  ceding  away  vast  tracts  of 
land.  The  treaties  which  the  Indians  admitted  to 
have  been  properly  made  and  signed  they  saw  inter 
preted  by  the  white  settlers  to  mean  what  it  is  cer 
tain  the  Indians  who  signed  them  never  intended. 
Under  these  treaties  jurisdiction  was  claimed,  not 
only  of  the  territories  ceded,  but  of  the  Indians  in 
habiting  them.  New  towns  were  every  where  being 
established,  new  grounds  cleared  and  cultivated,  and 
the  whites,  at  first  only  a  little  handful,  who  were 
given  shelter  in  the  native  wilds,  were  every  day 
growing  in  number,  and  were  every  day  exercising 
authority  in  a  way  most  galling  to  Indian  pride.  The 
danger  to  the  Indians  of  ultimate  extermination, 
which  Sassacus  had  predicted,  was  now  plainly  obvi 
ous  to  the  savage  mind  and  was  no  longer  remote. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  colonists  claimed  that  they 
had  bought  of  the  English  government  and  the  Eng 
lish  proprietors  all  the  title  they  had,  and  that  they 
had  bought  of  the  Indians  all  the  title  they  had;  that 
they  had  not  paid  much  but  that  they  had  paid  all  the 
land  was  worth,  and  that  nearly  all  its  value  was  that 
which  had  been  given  to  it  by  two  generations  of 


THE    PURITANS    AND    THE    INDIANS.  83 

Puritan  industry.  If  their  laws  imposed  severe  re 
straints  upon  the  Indians  in  their  jurisdiction,  the  col 
onists  claimed  that  these  laws  were  enforced  against 
the  whites  as  rigorously  as  they  were  against  the 
Indians,  and  that,  unless  they  were  so  enforced 
against  all  alike,  law  and  order  could  not  be  main 
tained.  So  far  as  any  religious  considerations  en 
tered  into  the  question  they  only  confirmed  the  colo 
nists  in  the  righteousness  of  their  cause.  They  drew 
their  inspiration  largely  from  the  Old  Testament,  and 
it  was  not  difficult  for  them  to  persuade  themselves 
that  they  were  the  Lord's  chosen  people  and  that  the 
heathen  savages  were  the  Amorites  who  were  to  be 
driven  out  of  the  land  whenever  they  stood  in  the 
way. 

To  abandon  all  for  which  they  had  labored  for 
over  forty  years  and  go  back  to  England  was  not 
thought  of.  If  it  had  been  thought  of  it  would  have 
occurred  to  them  that  probably  they  would  be  as  un 
welcome  to  the  rulers  of  England  as  they  were  to  the 
savages  in  America.  Indeed  the  probable  dangers 
of  Indian  war  were  far  preferable  to  another  period 
of  Star  Chamber  and  High  Commission  persecution, 
such  as  the  Puritans  had  suffered  in  England. 

The  Indians  were  now  far  better  prepared  to  fight 
for  what  they  conceived  to  be  their  rights  than  they 
were  in  the  time  of  the  Pequot  war.  Though  their 
numbers  had  not  largely  increased,  they  still  far  out 
numbered  the  whites.  In  the  years  that  had  elapsed 
since  the  Pequot  war,  many  of  the  Indians  had  ac 
quired  firearms  and  had  learned  how  to  use  them,  and 


84  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

were  far  better  able  to  cope  with  the  whites  in  war 
than  they  were  in  the  time  of  Sassacus. 

Meantime  a  leader  had  appeared.  King  Philip,  at 
least,  has  left  a  name  in  the  history  of  New  England 
that  never  will  be  forgotten,  although  he  has  had  no 
historian  like  the  one  who  has  given  us  the  fascinat 
ing  story  of  Pontiac.  Indeed  the  historians  of  Mas-| 
sachusetts  have  done  scant  justice  to  King  Philip's 
courage,  energy  and  sagacity.  They  tell  us  that  he 
was  never  recognized  by  the  Indians  as  a  leader,  nor 
allowed  to  exercise  any  authority  over  them ;  that  he 
was  not  inspired  by  anything  like  patriotic  devotion 
to  his  race ;  that,  though  he  incited  others  to  battle, 
it  is  not  certainly  known  that  he  himself  ever  took 
part  in  any;  and  that  he  was  utterly  destitute  of  all 
noble  or  heroic  qualities  that  might  be  implied  from 
the  name  which  the  colonists  themselves  had  given 
him. 

"The  title  of  king,"  says  Palfrey,  "which  it  has 
been  customary  to  attach  to  his  name,  disguises  and 
transfigures  to  the  view  the  form  of  a  squalid  savage, 
whose  palace  was  a  sty,  whose  royal  robe  was  a  bear 
skin  or  a  coarse  blanket,  alive  with  vermin;  who 
hardly  knew  the  luxury  of  an  ablution;  who  was  often 
glad  to  appease  appetite  with  food  such  as  men  who 
are  not  starving  loathe;  and  whose  nature  possessed 
just  the  capacity  for  reflection  and  the  degree  of  re 
finement  which  might  be  expected  to  be  developed 
from  the  mental  constitution  of  his  race  by  such  a 
condition  and  such  habits  of  life."1 

Sheldon  agrees    substantially  with  Palfrey  in  the 

1  Vol.  3,  p.  223. 


THE    PURITANS    AND    THE    INDIANS.  85 

latter's  estimate  of  Philip,  but  finds  in  Canonchet  the 
missing  Indian  hero  who,  according  to  Palfrey's  way  of 
thinking,  never  existed  except  in  the  Leather  Stocking 
novels.  "Thus  fell  a  man,"  he  says,  commenting 
on  his  death,  "  who  should  be  ranked  first  of  all  New 
England  Indians  in  the  qualities  which  go  to  make 
up  a  patriot,  nobleman,  and  warrior."1  And  Mr. 
Fiske  goes  further  and  throws  out  a  suggestion,  that 
Canonchet,  and  not  Philip,  was  the  real  master 
spirit  of  the  war  which  bears  the  latter's  name.2 

Great  deference  is  justly  due  to  these  eminent  his 
torians,  but  it  is  not  easy  to  accept  their  estimate  of 
Philip.  That  he  was,  like  most  of  his  race,  vain, 
proud,  cruel,  and  treacherous,  it  is  easy  to  believe. 
It  is  not  so  easy,  with  all  the  evidence  we  have,  to 
believe  that  he  was  so  insignificant  a  figure  in  the 
bloody  conflict  which  he  precipitated,  as  we  might  be 
led  to  infer  from  the  statements  of  the  Massachusetts 
historians. 

There  must  have  been  some  powerful  master  spirit 
to  unite  in  so  extensive  a  coalition  tribes  widely  sep 
arated  and  between  some  of  whom  there  had  before 
existed  bitter  and  long-standing  feuds.  To  have  ac 
complished  this  must  have  required  the  presenting  of 
arguments  skillfully  devised  to  reach  the  wary  and 
suspicious  minds  of  the  savages  to  whom  they  were 
addressed.  And  to  do  this  must  have  required  inces 
sant  journeys  over  long  distances  and  through  vast 
wildernesses.  A  still  more  difficult  task  was  to  pro 
vide  those  who  were  expected  to  take  part  in  the 

1  Hist.  Deerfield,  Vol.  I,  p.  146. 

2  Beginnings  of  Neiv  Eng.,  p.  222,  note  I. 


86  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

conflict  with  arms  and  ammunition.  An  equally  dif 
ficult  task  was  to  carry  on  all  these  preparations  and 
at  the  same  time  to  conceal  them  from  the  colonists. 

Unquestionably  this  master  spirit  was  Philip.  That 
was  the  judgment  of  those  who  were  living  at  the 
time.  They  called  the  war  by  his  name.  They 
rejoiced  more  over  his  death  than  they  did  over  the 
death  of  all  other  Indian  chiefs.  And  for  many  years 
afterwards  it  was  the  name  of  the  chief  of  Pokonoket 
which  inspired  the  most  terror  in  the  stories,  that  were 
told  to  the  children  gathered  around  the  firesides,  of 
the  horrid  butcheries  which  their  fathers  witnessed  or 
in  which  they  had  fallen. 

Philip  was  a  son  of  Massasoit,  chief  sachem  of  the 
Wampanoags,  who  had  been  the  friend  and  ally  of 
the  Plymouth  colonists.  After  the  death  of  his 
father  and  elder  brother,  Philip  became  chief  of  the 
tribe.  His  headquarters  were  at  Mount  Hope,  near 
the  present  site  of  Bristol  in  Rhode  Island.  The 
tribe  was  a  small  one,  numbering  but  a  few  hundred 
warriors.  If  he  had  been  the  great  chieftain  of  a 
powerful  tribe,  like  the  Narragansetts,  it  would  be 
easy  to  account  for  his  influence,  but  that  the  petty 
sachem  of  so  insignificant  a  handful  of  followers  could 
have  exercised  the  influence,  which  he  undoubtedly 
did,  over  tribes  far  more  numerous  and  more  power 
ful,  demonstrates  that  Philip's  abilities  were  of  a  far 
higher  order  than  he  has  been  credited  with  possessing 
by  some  of  the  Massachusetts  historians. 

There  is  little  doubt  that,  from  the  time  of  his  ac 
cession  to  the  chieftaincy  of  his  tribe,  Philip  was  en 
gaged  in  plotting  a  general  confederation  of  all  the 


THE   PURITANS   AND   THE    INDIANS.  87 

Indians,  far  and  near,  for  the  purpose  of  exterminat 
ing  the  colonists.  He  pursued  his  object  with  untir 
ing  energy*  now  traversing  the  wilderness  and  win 
ning  over  one  tribe  after  another;  now  holding 

O  /  C5 

meetings  with  the  colonists  and  assuring  them  of  his 
peaceful  intentions  and  the  sincerity  of  his  professed 
friendship;  but  all  the  time  steadily  and  stealthily 
perfecting  the  plot  which  was  the  object  of  his  life 
and  of  which  he  never  lost  sight. 

But,  however  and  by  whomsoever  the  coalition  was 
planned,  there  is  no  doubt  that  it  was  by  far  the  most 
extensive  and  powerful  that  had  so  far  been  organ 
ized.  By  the  end  of  1674  one  tribe  after  another 
had  been  brought  into  the  confederation,  and  most  of 
the  u  Praying  Indians"  had  been  seduced  from  their 
allegiance  to  the  colonists. 

It  is  needless  to  enter  into  any  minute  examination 
of  the  immediate  causes  which  led  to  the  final  out 
break.  In  the  nature  of  things  it  was  inevitable, 
sooner  or  later,  and  was  certain  to  be  precipitated, 
if  not  by  one  thing,  then  by  something  else.  Mat 
ters  had  now  come  to  such  a  pass  that  the  contest 
between  the  savage  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  in  New 
England  could  no  longer  be  avoided  or  postponed. 

It  was  the  intention  of  Philip  to  have  everything 
in  readiness  for  a  simultaneous  uprising  and  begin 
ning  of  hostilities  by  the  spring  of  1676.  The  dis 
covery  of  his  scheme,  and  the  danger  that  he  himself 
might  be  apprehended  and  executed,  brought  on  the 
conflict  sooner  than  had  been  intended,  and  in  1675 
all  disguise  was  thrown  off  and  the  bloody  war  was 
begun  by  the  slaughter  of  some  of  the  settlers  at 


88  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

Swanzey  on  June  24,  1675,  anc^  almost  instanta 
neously  all  of  the  frontier  towns  were  in  flames,  set 
tlements  were  broken  up,  houses  and  barns  were 
burned,  families  were  murdered,  and  everywhere 
the  work  of  death  and  destruction  was  inaugurated 
and  carried  on  with  a  savage  boldness  and  ferocity 
that  for  a  time  seemed  to  be  irresistible. 

In  a  short  time  the  Indians  had  annihilated  sev 
eral  of  the  frontier  towns  and  partly  destroyed  many 
more,  had  murdered  and  taken  captive  many  of  the 
inhabitants,  and  at  one  time  had  advanced  within 
eighteen  miles  of  Boston.  This  was  by  far  the  most 
critical  period  in  the  history  of  the  commonwealth. 
But  the  colonists  met  the  savage  onset  promptly,  and 
with  that  undaunted  Puritan  courage  in  the  record  of 
which  there  is  no  break  from  Marston  Moor  to 
Bunker  Hill.  They  at  once  took  the  field,  faced 
their  savage  foes,  and  attacked  them  in  their  strong 
holds.  As  the  war  progressed  it  assumed  a  san 
guinary  character  never  equaled  before  or  since  on 
this  continent.  No  quarter  was  given  or  expected. 
Sometimes  the  colonists  were  overpowered  by  over 
whelming  numbers,  as  was  Lothrop  at  Bloody 
Brook  and  Wadsworth  at  Sudbury,  and  then  they 
fought  until  all,  or  nearly  all,  fell  dead  in  their  tracks. 
When  the  savages  refrained  from  tomahawking  a 
captive  on  the  spot,  it  was  usually  because  they  re 
served  him,  with  fiendish  malice,  for  a  more  dread 
ful  fate.  They  were  not  content  even  with  burning 
the  victims  at  the  stake,  but  tortured  them  as  they 
were  being  roasted  in  every  way  that  the  diabolical 
ingenuity  of  a  savage  mind  could  invent. 


THE    PURITANS   AND    THE    INDIANS.  89 

It  is  not  surprising  that,  the  colonists,  who  usually 
sought  in  the  Bible  inspiration  for  all  their  conduct, 
became  animated  before  the  close  of  the  war  by  feel 
ings  not  so  divine  as  those  inculcated  by  Holy  Writ. 
Some  allowance  must  be  made  for  the  frenzy  of  men 
to  whom  the  recollection  was  yet  fresh  of  burning 
homes,  and  in  whose  ears  were  yet  ringing  the  shrieks 
of  murdered  wives  and  babes. 

King  Philip's  war  proves,  more  clearly  than  any 
other  in  the  history  of  this  country,  how  war  can  so 
arouse  the  devilish  passions  of  men  as  almost  to  ob 
literate  the  line  of  demarkation  between  barbarism 
and  civilization.  It  is  true  that  the  colonists  did  not 
roast  their  captives  at  the  stake,  as  did  their  Indian 
foes;  but  they  sent  some  of  them  to  far-off  lands  to 
languish  and  die  in  slavery.  This  was  the  horrible 
punishment  inflicted  even  upon  Philip's  little  son 
who  was  sold  as  a  slave  in  Bermuda.  For  this  bar 
barous  and  inhuman  act  no  reputable  Massachusetts 
historian  has  ventured  even  an  apology,  although, 
as  Palfrey  suggests,  "some  of  the  ministers  con 
sidered  the  case  to  be  analogous  to  that  of  Hadad, 
the  Edomite,  in  the  first  book  of  Kings  n,  14." 
After  Canonchet  had  been  executed,  his  head  was 
cut  off  and  sent  to  Hartford.  After  Philip  was 
slain  his  body  was  quartered,  his  head  was  severed 
and  paraded  at  Plymouth  on  a  day  appointed  for 
public  thanksgiving.  We  are  shocked  by  the  dia 
bolical  ferocity  of  the  women  in  the  time  of  the 
French  revolution,  but  it  must  be  recorded  that 
some  of  the  gentle  Puritan  dames  were  likewise 
wrought  up  into  a  frenzy  which  made  them  little  less 


90  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

ferocious  than  the  women  of  France.     The  women 
of    Marblehead,  as   they  came  out  of  meeting    one 
Sunday,  rushed  upon  two  Indian  prisoners,  who  had 
just  been  captured,  and  murdered  them  on  the  spot. 
The  hostility  of    the    Narragansetts,  though  sus 
pected  before,  was  not  fully  disclosed  until  October, 
1675.     It  was  now  obvious  to  the  colonists  that  there 
was  imminent   danger  of  a  general  uprising  of  the 
Indians  and  that  all  would  be   lost  unless  a  decisive 
blow  could  be   struck  before   the  following  spring. 
It  was  determined  to  attack  the  Narragansetts  in  their 
stronghold,  where  their  chief,  Canonchet,  had  gath 
ered   together   some    2,000    armed   warriors    in    a 
strong   fort    situated    in    a   swamp.     The    fort   was 
surrounded    by    palisades,    and    the    only    apparent 
access    to    it   was    over    a   log    then    slippery    with 
snow.      In  the  dead  of  winter  the  expedition  set  out 
under  the  command  of  Gov.  Winslow,  of  Plymouth. 
It  numbered  a  little  less  than  1,000  men  made  up  of 
troops  from  Massachusetts,  Plymouth  and  Connecti 
cut.     Marching   through    the    snow  the  little  army 
reached  the  fort  on  Sunday,  the  I9th  of  December, 
and  immediately  stormed  the  Indian  stronghold.  Six 
of  the  captains  were  shot  in  the  beginning  of  the  as 
sault,  but  the  colonial  troops  pressed  forward,  and 
climbed  upon  each  other's  shoulders  in  order  to  scale 
the   palisades.     Once  they  gained  an  entrance  and 
were    repulsed.     Again    they   rushed   forward    and 
reached  the  inside  of  the  works  at  the  same  time  that 
some    of  their  comrades   had   effected    an   entrance 
through  a  weak  spot  in  the  rear.     Then   began  a 
bloody  hand  to  hand  fight  that  lasted  for  hours.  The 


THE    PURITANS   AND   THE    INDIANS.  9! 

colonial  soldiers  fought  with  the  fierce  and  desperate 
English  courage,  which,  on  other  and  larger  fields, 
has  made  the  stories  of  Agincourt  and  Waterloo  and 
Balaklava  more  wonderful  than  even  the  poetic 
fables  of  the  siege  of  Troy.  Until  the  sun  went 
down  on  that  December  day  they  smote  their  savage 
foes.  When  night  came  on  the  shadows  fell  upon  a 
dreadful  sight.  Of  Winslow's  men,  one-fourth  had 
been  killed  or  wounded.  The  dead  Narragansetts. 
lay  piled  in  heaps.  Nearly  1,000  of  them  had  been 
slain.  Of  the  survivors,  Canonchet,  with  some  of 
his  followers,  escaped,  and  the  rest  were  taken  pris 
oners. 

This  was  the  turning  point  in  the  war,  though  it 
was  not  the  end  of  it.  Philip  appeared  again  in  the 
following  spring  and  hostilities  were  resumed.  There 
were  more  massacres  and  devastations,  but  it  would 
not  be  possible  in  a  short  chapter  to  recount  the 
stories  so  often  told  of  the  horrors  of  this  dreadful 
war.  It  lasted  but  little  over  a  year.  Before  its  close, 
Canonchet  was  captured  and  executed  and  Philip 
was  slain.  The  colonists  were  victorious,  but  their 
victory  had  been  dearly  bought.  The  public  funds 
had  been  exhausted  and  enormous  public  debts  had 
been  incurred  in  carrying  on  the  war.  Ruin  was 
on  every  hand.  Many  towns  had  been  entirely  de 
stroyed.  Everywhere  houses  and  barns  had  been 
burned,  fields  laid  waste,  cattle  killed  or  driven  off, 
and,  what  was  far  more  distressing,  nearly  every 
family  mourned  the  loss  of  some  one  who  had  been 
slain  or  carried  away  into  captivity.  Mr.  Hudson1 

1  Hist.  Marlborough,  p.  80. 


92  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

has  thus  concisely  summed  up  the  dreadful  results  of 
the  war: 

"The  horrors  and  devastation  of  Philip's  war  have  no 
parallel  in  our  history.  The  Revolution  was  a  struggle  for 
freedom;  the  contest  with  Philip  was  for  existence.  The 
war  lasted  only  about  fourteen  months ;  and  yet  the  towns 
of  Brookfield,  Lancaster,  Marlborough,  Medfield,  Sudbury, 
Groton,  Deerfield,  Hatfield,  Hadley,  Northfield,  Spring 
field,  Weymouth,  Chelmsford,  Andover,  Scituate,  Bridge- 
water,  Plymouth,  and  several  other  places,  were  wholly  or 
partially  destroyed,  and  many  of  the  inhabitants  were  mas 
sacred  or  carried  into  captivity.  During  this  short  period 
six  hundred  of  our  brave  men,  the  flower  and  strength  of 
the  colony,  had  fallen,  and  six  hundred  dwelling-houses 
were  consumed.  Every  eleventh  family  was  homeless,  and 
every  eleventh  soldier  had  sunk  to  his  grave." 

In  an  address  before  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society,1  Dr.  Palfrey,  speaking  of  King  Philip's  war, 
says : 

"Before  it  is  finished,  there  is  scarcely  a  family  in  Massa 
chusetts  or  Plymouth  but  has  lost  a  father,  brother  or  son. 
Plymouth  has  incurred  a  debt  estimated  to  be  equal  to  the 
whole  personal  property  of  its  people.  The  sacrifice  of 
life  and  property  in  Massachusetts,  between  June,  1675,  and 
October,  1676,  is  greater,  in  proportion  to  her  population 
and  wealth,  than  that  afterwards  sustained  by  her  in  the 
whole  eight  years'  war  of  Independence.  She  met  the  ex 
hausting  demand  almost  wholly  from  her  own  resources." 

To  the  Indians  the  war  was  even  more  disastrous 
than  it  was  to  the  colonists.  No  accurate  estimate 

1  Mass.  His.  Coll.,  3d  Ser.,  Vol.  9,  p.  181. 


THE    PURITANS   AND    THE    INDIANS.  93 

can  be  made  of  the  number  slain  in  battle,  but  the 
number  far  exceeded  the  number  of  the  colonists 
who  so  perished.  Many  of  the  captives  were  exe 
cuted;  many  more  were  sold  into  slavery.  Their 
villages  were  burned  and  their  planting  grounds  de 
stroyed,  and  they  were  left  almost  totally  destitute. 
The  once  powerful  Narragansett  tribe  had  been 
practically  annihilated.  Those  who  had  not  been 
killed  or  sold  as  slaves  amalgamated  with  other  tribes 
and  the  tribe  lost  its  name  and  its  identity. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  it  is  certain  that  our  Puritan 
ancestors  indulged  in  no  sentimental  ideas  of  the 
"  noble  red  man."  To  them  he  had  become  a  fright 
ful  reality,  a  treacherous  and  unpitying  foe,  whose 
painted  face  and  appalling  whoop  struck  terror  to  the 
strongest  heart.  He  came  with  stealthy  tread  and 
butchered  with  relentless  fury.  None  knew  when 
the  fierce  savage,  with  horrid  face  and  dreadful  yell, 
brandishing  tomahawk  and  scalping  knife,  might 
rush  upon  the  man  driving  his  plow  in  the  field,  or 
fall  upon  his  helpless  wife  and  children  in  his  home. 

But  there  were  no  more  Indian  wars  during  the 
existence  of  the  commonwealth.  In  that  region  the 
dominion  of  the  white  man  over  the  red  man  had 
been  established  forever. 


V 

DOMESTIC  AND  SOCIAL  LIFE 

LARGE  FAMILIES. — The  domestic  circle  in  the  time 
of  the  old  Puritans  was  usually  a  very  large  one. 
The  stories  of  the  numbers  of  some  of  them  are 
amazing.  It  is  difficult  to  comprehend  how  they 
were  all  taken  care  of,  but  they  were  taken  care  of, 
and  most  of  them  grew  up  to  be  strong,  healthy  and 
useful  members  of  the  community.  The  author  of 
the  "  Magnalia  "  tells  many  wonderful  stories,  but 
we  have  no  reason  to  doubt  what  he  says  about  the 
size  of  the  old  Puritan  families.  He  gives  one  in 
stance  of  a  woman  who  bore  twenty-two  children, 
and  of  another  who  bore  twenty-three,  of  whom 
nineteen  lived  to  adult  years.  The  mother  of  Gov. 
William  Phips,  he  tells  us,  had  twenty-one  sons 
and  five  daughters.  The  Rev.  John  Sherman,  of 
"Watertown,  had  six  children  by  his  first  wife  and 
twenty  by  his  second.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  women, 
even  of  that  day,  would  have  expressed  such  pious 
gratitude  as  did  Cotton  Mather  when  he  said,  "  Be 
hold,  thus  was  our  Sherman,  that  eminent  fearer  of 
the  Lord,  blessed  of  Him."1 

DWELLING-HOUSES. — The  most  of  the  dwelling- 
houses  in  the  beginning  were  very  small  structures, 

1  Magnalia,  Vol.  i,  p.  517. 

(94) 


DOMESTIC    AND    SOCIAL    LIFE.  95 

built  of  logs,  the  "chinks"  or  spaces  between  the  logs 
being  filled  with  clay,  the  roofs  being  thatched  with 
coarse  grass  or  covered  with  cloboards,  and  the  floors 
being  made  of  split  logs  or  puncheons.  Generally 
the  house  consisted  of  two  rooms,  a  living  room  and 
a  kitchen,  with  sleeping  places  in  the  garret  reached 
by  a  ladder.  Sheldon1  says  that  "a  common  form 
was  eighteen  feet  square,  with  seven  feet  stud,  stone 
fireplaces,  with  catted  chimney  and  a  'hip-roof  cov 
ered  with  thatch."  The  pictures  of  them  show 
houses  very  similar  to  those  so  common  in  the  early 
settlements  in  the  west.2 

They  were  heated  by  fireplaces.  Stoves  did  not 
come  into  general  use  until  long  afterwards.  They 
were  lighted3  at  first  with  pieces  of  pitch-pine  or 
candle- wood.  Wax  candles  were  a  luxury,  and  so 
were  tallow  candles  until  cattle  and  sheep  became 
plentiful.  Sperm  oil  was  not  used  until  whale  fish 
ing  was  established,  which  was  not  until  1690,  and 
it  was  not  until  1774  that  Boston  took  steps  to  light 
the  streets. 

As  soon  as  saw-mills  and  the  manufacture  of  brick 
were  introduced,  which  was  at  an  early  date,  the  log 
houses  in  the  towns  gave  way  to  larger  and  better 
structures  of  a  variety  of  styles.  When  glass  began 
to  be  used  in  the  windows,  the  panes  were  small, 
diamond-shaped  pieces.  Before  that  oiled  paper  was 
used  instead  of  glass. 

In  all   the  houses,  the  kitchen  was  a   prominent 

1  History  of  Deer  field,  Vol.  i,  p.  276. 

2  Palfrey,  Vol.  2,  p.  63;  Dorchester  in  the  Colonial  Period,  by  Rev. 
Samuel  F.  Barrows;  i  Mem.  Hist,  of  Boston,  p.  423. 

3  Candle-light  in  Colonial  Times,  i  N.  Eng.  Mag.,  p.  516. 


96  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

feature.  In  one  end  was  a  great  fireplace.  In  this 
swung  the  crane,  with  its  pothooks,  leaving  ample 
room  beneath  for  the  skillets  and  frying  pans.  From 
the  ceiling  hung  ears  of  corn  and  pieces  of  cured  meat. 
In  the  winter  around  this  fireplace,  with  its  huge 
backlog  and  roaring  flames,  gathered  the  family; 
and  when  we  remember  that  the  "  family"  often 
comprised  ten  or  more  children,  we  can  readily  im 
agine  that  the  gathering  was  not  a  small  one. 

The  furniture  of  these  dwellings  was  usually  as 
plain  as  the  dwellings  themselves — some  home-made 
tables,  benches  or  stools,  plain  bedsteads  and  ticks 
filled  with  straw  or  pine  needles.  If  there  was  any 
thing  more  costly,  it  was  some  piece  of  furniture  or 
plate  brought  from  England.  In  the  "  catalogue  of 
such  needful  things  as  every  planter  doth  or  ought  to 
provide  to  go  to  New  England,"  Francis  Higgin- 
son1  in  1630  enumerated  the  following:  "  House 
hold  Implements,  viz.:  i  iron  pot;  i  kettle;  i  fry 
ing  pan;  i  gridiron;  2  skillets;  i  spit;  wooden  plat 
ters;  dishes;  spoons;  trenchers." 

Extravagance  in  the  building  and  furnishing  of 
houses  was  not  more  favored  by  the  early  Puritans 
than  was  extravagance  in  dress.  In  1632  Winthrop 
reproved  his  deputy  "that  he  did  not  well  to  bestow 
too  much  cost  about  wainscotting  and  adorning  his 
house  in  the  beginning  of  a  plantation,  both  in  re 
gard  of  the  public  charges  and  for  example."  But, 
long  before  the  close  of  the  commonwealth,  the  ad 
vice  of  Winthrop  lost  its  force  and  houses  of  a  far 
more  pretentious  character  began  to  appear,  especially 

1  New  England's  Plantation. 


DOMESTIC    AND    SOCIAL    LIFE.  97 

in  Boston,  and  even  the  pious  Judge  Sewall  was 
writing  to  London  for  finer  furniture  than  he  could 
get  in  America. 

The  inventories  of  estates  found  in  the  early  pro 
bate  records  show  that,  long  before  the  close  of  the 
commonwealth  period,  the  houses  of  some  of  the 
wealthy  inhabitants  of  Boston  were  furnished  very 
richly,  and  specimens  of  some  finely  carved  furniture, 
beautiful  plate,  and  other  costly  interior  ornaments, 
are  still  preserved  in  antiquarian  museums  and  as 
heirlooms  in  private  families.  But  the  great  majority 
of  the  houses  and  their  furnishings,  even  in  Boston, 
were  plain  and  simple. 

APPAREL. — In  Higginson's  catalogue  of  "  needful 
things,"  before  mentioned,  he  enumerates  the  follow 
ing  articles  of  apparel,  viz:  "  i  Monmouth  Cap;  3  fall 
ing  bands;  3  shirts;  i  waistcoat;  i  suit  of  canvass;  i 
suit  of  frieze;  i  suit  of  cloth;  3  pair  of  stockings;  4 
pair  of  shoes."  Mr.  Scudder1  gives  an  elaborate  de 
scription  of  the  kind  and  material  of  clothing  worn 
in  the  time  of  the  commonwealth,  but  confesses  that 
he  is  obliged  to  ' '  retreat ' '  when  it  comes  to  discuss 
ing  the  "  varying  forms  and  styles  of  woman's  dress." 
However,  the  reader  whose  curiosity  is  not  entirely 
satisfied  will  find  this  interesting  subject  fully  dis 
cussed  in  more  recent  volumes  by  a  very  gifted  and 
graceful  writer.2  In  a  country  so  new,  occupied  by  so 
poor  a  people,  we  should  not  expect  much  extrava 
gance  in  dress,  but  it  seems  that  this  was  early  a  source 

1  Life  in  Boston  in  the  Colonial  Period;  i  Mem.  Hist.  Boston,  p.  487. 

2  Alice    Morse    Earle's    Costumes   of  Colonial  Times;  Customs  and 
Fashions  in  Old  New  England;  Chapter  on  "  Raiment  and  Vesture" 

PUR.  REP. — 7 


98  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

of  grief  to  our  forefathers,  for  in  1634  ^e  General 
Court  ordered  "that  noe  person,  either  man  or 
woman,  shall  hereafter  make  or  buy  any  apparell, 
ether  wollen,  silke  or  lynnen,with  any  lace  on  it,  sil 
ver,  gold  or  threed,  under  penalty  of  forfeiture  of  such 
cloathes,"  and  also  prohibited  making  or  buying  " any 
slashed  cloathes,  other  than  one  slashe  in  each  sleeve 
and  another  in  the  back";  also  "all  cutt-works,  irn- 
broidered  or  needle  worke  capps,  bands  &  vayles"; 
also  "all  golde  or  silver  girdles,  hattbands,  belts,  ruffs, 
beaver  hatts  ";  but  permission  was  generously  given 
the  people  to  wear  out  their  old  clothes,  "except  the 
immoderate  greate  sleeves,  slashed  apparel,  immod 
erate  greate  vayles,  long  wings."1 

In  1639,  tne  General  Court  made  another  order 
prohibiting  the  wearing  upon  garments  "  any  man 
ner  of  lace,"  and  in  the  same  order  it  was  provided 
"  that  hereafter  no  garment  shall  be  made  with  short 
sleeves,  whereby  the  nakedness  of  the  arme  may  be 
discovered  in  the  wearing  thereof  &  such  as  have 
garments  already  made  with  short  sleeves  shall  not 
hereafter  were  the  same,  unless  they  cover  their 
armes  to  the  wrist  with  linen  or  otherwise.  And 
that  hereafter  no  person  whatsoever  shall  make  any 
garment  for  woemen,  or  any  of  ther  sex,  with  sleeves 
more  than  halfe  an  elle  wide  in  the  widest  place 
thereof  &  so  proportionable  for  biger  or  smaller  per 
sons."2 

In  1651  a  law  was  passed3  with  a  very  long  recital 
against  "  excess  in  Aparel,"  and,  in  order  to  compel 

1  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  126. 
*  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  274. 
b8  Col.  Laws,  1672-1686,  p.  5. 


DOMESTIC   AND    SOCIAL   LIFE.  99 

"  the  sober  and  moderate  use  of  those  blessings 
which,  beyond  expectation  the  Lord  hath  been 
pleased  to  afford  unto  us  in  this  wilderness,"  pro 
ceeds  to  denounce  penalties  against  gold  or  silver 
lace  or  buttons,  or  "  bone  lace  above  two  shil 
lings  per  yard,"  "  the  wearing  of  ribbonds  or  great 
Boots  (leather  being  so  scarce  a  commodity  in 
this  country)  Lace  points  &c.  Silk  Hoods  or  Scarfs  "; 
and  the  selectmen  of  every  town  were  required  to 
"take  notice  of  Apparel  of  any  of  the  Inhabitants 
of  their  severall  Towns  respectively."  But  "  excess 
in  apparel"  continuing,  " whereby  the  Rising  Gen 
eration  are  in  danger  to  be  Corrupted  and  Effemi 
nated,"  another  law  was  passed  in  1662  which  also 
forbade  the  " Taylors"  from  making  or  fashioning 
any  garment  for  children  or  servants  "  contrary  to 
the  mind  and  order  of  their  Parents  or  Governors," 
and  in  1675  "the  ev^  pride  in  Apparel"  continuing 
and  "new  strange  Fashions"  appearing  "both  in 
poor  and  rich,  with  naked  Breasts  and  Arms,  or,  as 
it  were,  pinnioned  with  the  Addition  of  Superflous 
Ribbons,  both  on  Hair  and  Apparel,"  another  law 
was  passed  directing  that  if  the  grand  jurors  failed 
to  find  indictments  against  the  guilty  persons,  the 
county  courts  should  impose  a  fine  upon  them  at 
their  discretion.1 

The  Rev.  Nathaniel  Ward  also  preached  a  furious 
sermon  against  ungodliness  in  female  attire  and  con 
fessed  that  he  found  himself  wrought  up  into  a  frenzy 
when  he  heard  "a  nugiferous  Gentledame  inquire 
what  dress  the  Queen  is  in  this  week;  what  the  med- 

1  Col.  Laws,  1672-1686,  p.  233. 


100  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

instertian  fashion  of  the  Court,"  and  thereupon  "the 
simple  cobbler  of  Agawam"  proceeded  to  denounce 
her  as  "the  very  gizzard  of  a  trifle,  the  product  of  a 
quarter  of  a  cipher,  the  epitome  of  nothing,  fitter  to 
be  kicked,  if  she  were  a  kickable  substance,  than 
cither  honored  or  humored."  He  added,  we  are 
glad  to  learn,  that  there  were  only  "  about  five  or  six 
of  them  in  our  colony."  If  there  had  been  but  one, 
possibly  she  might  have  been  squelched,  as  the  Bill 
ingsgate  fishwoman  was  by  Sydney  Smith  by  simply 
calling  her  "  an  isosceles  triangle." 

The  question  whether  women  should  appear  veiled 
or  not  at  public  assemblages,  got  into  the  churches. 
Roger  Williams,  then  the  minister  at  Salem,  thought 
they  ought  to  wear  veils,  and,  of  course,  he  had 
plenty  of  scripture  to  prove  it.  It  happened 
that  John  Cotton  took  the  opposite  view,  and,  of 
course,  he  had  plenty  of  scripture,  as  he  always 
had,  to  sustain  his  contention.  An  abridgment  of 
the  great  debate  between  these  two  eminent  divines 
on  this  interesting  question  is  given  us  by  the  historian 
Hubbard,  who  says  that  among  the  "many  strange 
notions"  taught  by  Williams  was: 

' '  As  first  that  it  was  the  duty  of  all  the  female  sex  to 
cover  themselves  with  veils  when  they  went  abroad,  espe 
cially  when  they  appeared  in  the  public  assemblies ;  as  if 
he  meant  to  read  them  a  lecture  out  of  Tertulian,  DeVe- 
landis  Virginibus,  Sec.,  for  the  uncouthness  of  the  sight  to 
see  all  the  women  in  the  congregation  veiled,  contrary  to 
the  custom  of  the  English  nation,  would  probably  have 
drawn  the  eyes  of  the  rest  upon  them,  especially  strangers, 
much  more  than  if  they  had  attired  themselves  after  the 


DOMESTIC    AND    SOCIAL    LIFE.  IOI 

fashion  of  their  neighbors.  But  in  reference  to  this  kind  of 
fancy,  it  is  observable,  that  the  reverend  Mr.  Cotton,  taking 
an  occasion  about  this  time  to  spend  a  Lord's  day  at  Salem, 
in  his  exercise  in  the  forenoon  he,  by  his  doctrine,  so  en 
lightened  most  of  the  women  in  the  place  that  it  unveiled 
them,  so  as  they  appeared  in  the  afternoon  without  their 
veils,  being  convinced  that  they  need  not  put  on  veils  on 
any  such  account  as  the  use  of  that  covering  is  mentioned 
in  the  scripture  for,  viz.,  not  as  they  were  virgins,  which 
the  married  sort  could  not  pretend  unto ;  much  less  as  har 
lots  as  Tamar ;  nor  yet  on  any  such  like  account  as  is  men 
tioned  of  Ruth  in  her  widowhood,  which  discourse  let  in  so 
much  light  into  their  understandings  that  they,  who  before 
thought  it  a  shame  to  be  seen  in  the  public  without  a  veil, 
were  ashamed  ever  after  to  be  covered  with  them."1 

It  seems  that  Cotton's  arguments  suited  either  the 
tastes  or  the  consciences  of  the  ladies  better  than  did 
those  of  Williams,  for  after  that  the  women  wore 
veils  only  when  it  suited  them  to  do  so. 

Dr.  Higginson  tells  us2  that  "in  1652  three  men 
and  a  woman  were  fined  ten  shillings  each  and  costs 
for  wearing  silver  lace*  another  for  broad  bone  lace, 
another  for  tiffany,  and  another  for  a  silk  hood," 
and  that  Jonas  Fairbanks  about  the  same  time  was 
"charged  with  great-boots  and  the  evidence  went 
hard  against  him,  but  he  was  fortunately  acquitted 
and  the  credit  of  the  family  saved."  So  late  as  1676 
thirty-eight  women  were  arraigned  in  Northampton 
for  their  "wicked  apparell."  But  not  long  after 
similar  prosecutions  were  quashed.  Our  foremothers, 

1Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  2<1  Ser.,  Vol.  5,  pp.  204-5. 
2  The  Puritan  Minister,  12  Atl.  Monthly,  276, 


102  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

had  triumphed  over  the  magistrates  and  the  latter 
gave  up  the  contest. 

"  Longe  haire  "  on  men  was  denounced  by  the 
General  Court  as  early  as  1634,  but  the  fashion 
among  men  of  wearing  long  hair  "  after  the  man 
ner  of  Russians  and  barbarous  Indians ?:  having 
"  begun  to  invade  New  England,  contrary  to  the 
rule  of  God's  words  which  says  it  is  a  shame  for  a 
man  to  wear  long  hair,"  Gov.  Endicott  and  the 
magistrates  united  in  a  solemn  protest  in  which  they 
declared  their  "  dislike  and  detestation  against  the 
wearing  of  such  long  hair  as  against  a  thing  uncivil 
and  unmannerly,  whereby  men  doe  deforme  them 
selves,  and  offend  sober  and  modest  men,  and  doe 
corrupt  good  manners."1  The  fashion  continued  to 
such  an  alarming  extent  that  divers  inhabitants  of 
Roxbury  were  moved  to  present  to  the  General 
Court  in  1672  a  petition  remonstrating  against  the 
evil  example  set  before  the  people  at  Harvard  Col 
lege,  chiefly  because  the  youth  there  "  are  brought 
up  in  such  pride  as  doth  no  ways  become  such  as  are 
brought  up  for  the  holy  service  of  the  Lord,  either  in 
the  magistracy  or  ministry  especialy,  and  in  -perticu- 
lar  in  their  long  haire,  which  last  first  tooke  head  and 
brake  out  at  the  colledg,  so  far  as  we  understand  and 
remember,  and  now  it  has  got  into  our  pulpets  to  the 
great  greife  and  fear  of  many  Godly  hearts  in  the  Coun 
try."  But  this  "  provoking  evil  "  still  continued  so 
to  contaminate  the  morals  of  the  community  that  in 
1675  it  was  found  necessary  to  pass  a  law  making  it 

1  Hutchinson,  Vol.  i,  pp.  142-3. 

2N.  E.  Hist.  &  Gen.  Reg.,  Vol  35,  pp.  121-2. 


DOMESTIC    AND    SOCIAL   LIFE.  103 

a  penal  offense  for  men  to  wear  "long  hair  like 
women's  hair."1 

FOOD  AND  DRINK.2 — Of  fish  there  was  great 
plenty  and  so  there  was  of  wild  game  and  fowl.  Out 
of  the  Indian  corn,  the  colonists  learned  from  the 
Indians  how  to  make  many  palatable  dishes.  Be 
fore  it  was  quite  matured  it  furnished  roasting  ears 
and  "sukquttahhash."  When  matured  it  was  made 
into  hominy  and  the  meal  from  it  was  used  in 
making  mush,  johnny-cake  or  journey-cake,  hoe- 
cake  and  ash-cakes,  and  a  variety  of  other  kinds  of 
of  food.  Wheat  did  not  thrive  well  and  was  little 
used  for  food  in  early  times.  But  pumpkins,  or 
"pompions"  as  they  were  called  in  those  days,  grew 
abundantly,  and  out  of  these  delicious  pies  and 
many  other  dishes  were  made.  Squashes  grew  in 
equal  abundance.  Beans,  peas,  and  other  garden 
vegetables  also  thrived  and  helped  to  furnish  the 
Puritan  tables.  It  was  not  long  until  the  colonists 
had  beef  and  mutton,  and,  as  soon  as  they  could  grow 
them,  apples,  cherries  and  other  small  fruits  came  on 
to  reinforce  the  table  supplies.  We  read  of  Thanks 
giving  dinners  long  before  the  close  of  the  common 
wealth  which  were  the  precursors  of  those  for  which 
New  England  afterwards  became  so  celebrated,  and 
which  leave  no  room  for  doubt  that  the  old  Puritans 
could  enjoy  a  good  dinner  as  well  as  a  good  sermon. 

There  was  plenty  of  good  water.  Francis  Hig- 
ginson  wrote  in  1629  that  the  country  was  full  of 

1Col.  Laws  1672-1686,  p.  233. 

2  Alice  Morse  Earle's  Customs  and  Fashions  in  Old  Neiv  England; 
chapters  on  "  Supplies  of  the  Larder  "  and  "  Old  Colonial  Drinks  and 
Drinkers? 


104  THE  PURITAN  REPUBLIC. 

"  dainty  springs,"  and  that  "  we  may  dig  wells  and 
find  water  where  we  list."  Nevertheless  the  Puri 
tans  who  came  from  England  did  not  take  kindly  to 
New  England  water  as  a  drink,  and  they  soon  be 
gan  to  make  ale  and  beer,  and  ale-houses  sprang 
up  on  every  hand.  As  soon  as  apples  became  plentiful, 
cider  became  plentiful  also,  and  it  seems  that  the 
harder  it  was,  the  more  it  was  liked  as  a  bever 
age.  It  was  also  distilled  into  cider-brandy  or  ap 
ple-jack.  After  a  few  years  wine  began  to  be  im 
ported,  and  all  classes  drank  wine  when  they  could 
get  it.  Later  rum  and  whisky  were  also  made  and 
drunk.  But  laws  against  excessive  drinking  of  in 
toxicating  liquors  were  speedily  enacted  and  rigidly 
enforced.  In  1639  tne  General  Court  enacted  a  law 
making  the  drinking  to  one  another  a  penal  offense, 
and  other  laws  against  excessive  drinking  of  intoxi 
cating  liquors  were  afterwards  passed.  Such  entries 
as  these  were  common:  "  James  Brown  is  censured 
for  drunkeness  to  bee  set  two  hours  in  the  bilboes 
upon  market  day  at  Boston  publiquely."  Neverthe 
less,  intemperance  continued  to  increase  until  it  be 
came  a  very  prevalent  and  crying  evil. 

Tea  was  a  rarity,  if  not  unknown,  during  the 
commonwealth  period,  and  we  do  not  hear  of  coffee 
until  about  1670. 

TOBACCO. — A  vigorous  and  persistent  war  was 
waged  against  the  use  of  tobacco.  In  1632,  the 
General  Court  forbade  the  taking  of  any  tobacco 
"  publiquely."  In  1634  ^  was  further  ordered  that 
no  person  should  take  tobacco,  either  "  publiquely  or 
privately  in  his  owne  howse,  or  in  the  howse  of 


DOMESTIC    AND    SOCIAL    LIFE.  105 

another,  before  strangers  &  that  two  or  more  shall 
not  take  it  togeather  anywhere."  A  short  time  after 
wards  the  purchase  and  sale  of  tobacco  was  ex 
pressly  prohibited.1  In  1637,  tne  ^aw  agamst  buy 
ing  and  selling  tobacco  was  repealed,  but  other  laws 
were  subsequently  enacted  to  discourage  its  use,  all 
of  which  seem  to  have  been  unavailing. 

INNS  OR  ORDINARIES. — Inns  early  became  a 
prominent  feature  of  the  social  life  of  the  common 
wealth.  They  were  not  only  indispensable  to  the 
traveler,  but  they  became  centers  for  the  dissem 
ination  of  local  and  foreign  news.  Indeed,  as  there 
were  no  newspapers  and  no  mails,  information  as  to 
what  was  going  on  in  the  outside  world  was  gained 
chiefly  from  the  innkeeper,  who  drew  his  supplies 
from  his  guests.  The  landlord  himself  was  usually 
a  prominent  man  in  the  community  and  frequently 
held  an  office  of  some  sort. 

But  the  inns  must  soon  have  become  places  of  re 
sort  for  those  inclined  to  greater  conviviality  than 
suited  the  ancient  Puritans,  for  we  find  that  the  Gen 
eral  Court  early  began  to  exercise  a  strict  surveillance 
over  all  such  places.  At  an  early  period  innkeepers 
were  required  to  procure  licenses.  Everv  innkeeper 
was  required  to  be  "always  provided  of  strong,  whole 
some  Beer,  of  four  bushels  of  Mault  (at  the  least)  to 
a  hogshead,  which  he  shall  not  sell  at  above  two 
pence  the  Ale  quart"*  but  innkeepers  were  expressly 
forbidden  to  sell  sack  or  strong  water,  or  to  allow  any 
drunken  person  on  their  premises,  or  to  suffer  any 
person  "to  drink  excessively,  viz.,  above  halfe  a  pint 

1  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  pp.  101,  126,  136. 


IO6  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

of  wine  for  one  person,  at  a  time,  or  to  continue 
Tipling  above  the  space  of  halfe  an  hour,  or  at  un 
seasonable  times,  or  after  nine  of  the  Clock  at  night." 
Nor  were  they  to  allow  any  tobacco  smoking  "  ex 
cept  in  a  private  room."1  Gaming  and  dancing  in 
inns  were  expressly  forbidden.  Finally,  in  1664, 
"This  Court  being  sensible  of  the  great  encrease  of 
Prophaness  amongst  us,  especially  in  the  younger  sort, 
taking  their  opportunity  by  meeting  together  in 
places  of  publick  entertainment,  to  corrupt  one  an 
other  by  their  uncivil  and  wanton  carriages,  rudely 
singing  and  making  a  noise,"  all  such  "prophaness" 
was  made  a  finable  offense,  and,  if  the  innkeeper  did 
not  prosecute  the  revellers,  his  license  was  forfeited.2 
Mr.  Hudson3  has  given  us,  as  a  sample  of  the  strict 
conditions  imposed  upon  the  keepers  of  public  houses, 
the  material  portions  of  the  bond  required  by  the 
public  authorities  of  Col.  Thomas  Howe,  who  kept 
the  putlic  inn  at  Marlborough  in  1696.  It  provided: 

"That  he  shall  not  suffer  or  have  any  playing  at  cards, 
dice,  tally  bowls,  nine  pins,  billiards,  or  any  other  unlawful 
game  or  games  in  his  said  house,  or  yard,  or  gardens,  or  back 
side,  nor  shall  suffer  to  remain  in  his  house  any  person  or 
persons,  not  being  his  own  family,  on  Saturday  night  after 
dark,  or  on  the  Sabbath  days,  or  during  the  time  of  God's 
Public  Worship ;  nor  shall  he  entertain  as  lodgers  in  his 
house  any  strangers,  men  or  women,  above  the  space  of 
forty-eight  hours,  but  such  whose  names  and  surnames,  he 
shall  deliver  to  some  one  of  the  selectmen  or  constable  of 
the  town,  unless  they  shall  be  such  as  he  very  well  knoweth, 

1  Col.  Laws  1660-1672,  pp.  163,  164. 

2  Col.  Laws  1660-1672,  p.  228-9. 

3  His.  Marlborough,  p.  382. 


DOMESTIC   AND    SOCIAL    LIFE.  107 

and  will  ensure  for  his  or  their  forth  coming — nor  shall  sell 
any  wine  to  the  Indians,  or  negroes,  nor  suffer  any  children 
or  servant,  or  other  person  to  remain  in  his  house,  tippling 
or  drinking  after  nine  o'clock  in  the  night — nor  shall  buy  or 
take  to  preserve  any  stolen  goods,  nor  willingly  or  know 
ingly  harbor  in  his  house,  barn,  stable,  or  otherwhere,  any 
rogues,  vagabonds,  thieves,  sturdy  beggars,  masterless  men 
or  women,  or  other  notorious  offenders  whatsoever — nor 
shall  any  person  or  persons  whatsoever,  sell  or  utter  any 
wine,  beer,  ale,  cider,  rum,  brandy  or  other  liquors,  by  de 
faulting,  or  by  color  of  his  license — nor  shall  entertain  any 
person  or  persons  to  whom  he  shall  be  prohibited  by  law, 
or  by  any  one  of  the  magistrates  of  the  County,  as  persons 
of  jolly  conversation  or  given  to  tippling." 

But  notwithstanding  the  severity  of  the  laws,  the 
inns  were  popular  places  of  resort,  and  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  the  landlords,  when  the  con 
stables  and  tithing-men  were  not  about,  did  not  al 
ways  allow  their  zeal  for  the  enforcement  of  the 
laws  to  lose  them  the  custom  of  those  who  sought 
their  inns  for  a  little  social  recreation  and  momenta 
rily  casting  aside  some  of  the  rigid  restraints  with 
which  their  daily  life  was  hedged  about.  Indeed  some 
of  the  inns,  like  the  Blue  Anchor  at  Boston,  and 
the  Greyhound  at  Roxbury,  became  famous,  and 
their  landlords  were  known  far  and  wide  for  their 
genial  disposition  and  generous  hospitality.  Dunton, 
the  bookseller,  who  visited  Boston  in  1686,  said  of 
George  Monck,  the  landlord,  that  it  was  "  almost 
impossible  not  to  be  cheerful  in  his  company."  In 
a  letter  written  February  29,  1692,  by  Joseph  Noyes, 
one  of  the  selectmen  of  Sudbury  to  the  Middlesex 
county  court,  recommending  Samuel  Howe  as  the 


108  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

most  suitable  person  to  have  a  license  to  entertain 
travelers,  he  says:  "  It  is  in  the  minds  of  most  of  us 
that  there  should  be  none  to  retale  drink  amongst  us, 
by  reason  of  the  growing  of  the  sin  of  drunkenness 
amongst  us.  Oure  fathers  came  into  this  wilderness  to 
enjoy  the  Gospel  and  his  ordinances  in  its  purity  and 
the  convertion  of  the  hethen,  but  insted  of  convert 
ing  them,  amongst  other  sins,  we  have  taught  them  to 
be  drunckerds  "•  and  he  says  further  that  in  his  opin 
ion  inns  should  be  for  entertainment  of  travelers 
"and  not  Town  drunckards."1 

ROADS  AND  TRAVEL. — Travel  and  commerce  with 
other  colonies,  and  also  internal  commerce,  were 
chiefly  by  water.  Until  roads  and  bridges  were 
made,  land  travel  was  over  the  trails  or  paths  which 
had  been  used  by  the  Indians  and  was  chiefly  on  foot 
until  horses  became  plentiful.  The  earliest  of  the 
great  roads  was  the  Old  Plymouth  or  Coast  Road, 
connecting  Boston  and  Plymouth.  In  early  times 
no  person  was  allowed  to  travel  over*  it  single  "nor  with 
out  some  arms,  though  two  or  three  together."2  The 
old  "Connecticut  Path"  ran  from  Cambridge  through 
Sudbury,  Marlborough  and  other  frontier  towns  and 
finally  to  Albany  in  New  York.  There  were  also 
the  "Bay  Path"  and  other  famous  roads.  As  towns 
could  afford  the  expense,  roads  and  bridges  and 
ferries  were  established  within  their  limits.  Long 
journeys  over  these  roads  were  chiefly  on  horseback, 
the  women  usually  being  seated  on  a  pillion,  and 
the  traveler  depended  for  his  provisions  upon  the 
supplies  which  he  carried  or  those  furnished  at  the 

1  N.  E.  Hist.  &  Gen.  Reg.,  Vol.  4,  p.  64. 

2  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  85. 


DOMESTIC    AND    SOCIAL    LIFE.  109 

inns  along  the  way.  The  vehicles  first  used  were 
two- wheeled  carts.  Stage-coaches  did  not  come  into 
use  during  the  commonwealth  period. 

PUBLIC  DAYS,  HOLIDAYS,  ETC. — Christmas  day,  as 
it  is  known  now,  the  day  on  which  all  the  world 
should  be  glad,  the  sweet  day  that  Dickens  has 
painted  in  the  "  Christmas  Carol,"  was  unknown  to 
our  forefathers.  At  an  early  date  a  law  was  passed  for 
preventing  disorders  arising  from  "observing  such 
feastivals  as  were  superstitiously  kept  in  other 
Countryes  to  the  Great  dishonour  of  God  and  offence 
of  others,"  and  it  was  therefore  made  a  finable  offense 
to  observe  "any  such  day  as  Christmas  or  the  like, 
either  by  forbearing  labour,  feasting,  or  any  other 
way."1  This  law  was  not  repealed  until  the  year 
1 68 1.  Of  course  May  days  and  other  old  and  time- 
honored  English  holidays  fell  under  the  ban  of  the 
same  law. 

But  there  were  various  public  days.  Some  of 
them  were  of  a  religious  character.  There  were  Fast 
days,  and  Thanksgiving  days,  and  Lecture  days.  The 
observances  on  Fast  and  Thanksgiving  days  are  too 
well  known  to  need  special  mention. 

The  Thursday  lecture  afforded  an  opportunity  of 
social  meetings,  of  which  advantage  was  eagerly 
taken,  and  people  often  went  from  one  town  to  an 
other  to  attend  the  exercises;  so  much  so  that  at  a  later 
period  it  became  necessary  to  put  some  restraints 
upon  this  custom,  for  in  1675  a  law  was  passed  re 
citing  that:  "Whereas  there  is  a  loose  and  sinful 
Customesof  Going  or  Riding  from  Town  to  Town,  and 

1  Colonial  Laws,  1660-1672,  p.  153. 


IIO  THE  PURITAN  REPUBLIC. 

that  oft  times  Men  and  Women  together,  upon  pre 
tence  of  going  to  Lectures,  but  it  appears  to  be  meerly 
to  Drink  andRevil  in  Ordinaries  and  Taverns,  which 
is  in  it  self  Scandalous,  and  it  is  to  be  feared  a  notable 
means  to  debauch  our  Youth,  and  hazard  the  Chastity 
of  such  as  are  drawn  forth  thereunto,"  and  providing 
that  all  single  persons  so  conducting  themselves 
should  be  "reputed  and  accounted  Riotous  and  Un- 
sober  persons,  and  of  ill  Behaviour"  and  should  be 
punished  accordingly.1 

There  were  some  public  days  not  of  a  religious 
character.  Of  these  the  chief  was  election  day.  But 
the  training  or  muster  day  was  the  day  on  which, 
more  than  any  other,  there  seems  to  have  been  most 
freedom  from  the  religious  restraints  of  the  times. 

AMUSEMENTS,  GAMES,  ETC. — The  austere  and 
somber  character  of  their  religion  tended  to  make 
our  ancestors  look  unkindly  at  anything  like  frivolity. 
Moreover  there  was  not  then  much  time  for  play. 
Consequently  we  find  all  kinds  of  games  discounte 
nanced  by  the  old  laws.  Among  the  first  laws  passed 
was  one  enacted  in  1631,  prohibiting  cards  and  dice, 
and  a  law  was  subsequently  passed  imposing  a  fine 
for  bringing  them  into  the  country  or  for  being 
found  in  possession  of  them.  Dancing  in  houses  of 
common  entertainment  was  also  prohibited,  and  in 
deed  dancing  in  any  place  was  not  favored.  In  1638, 
Lawrence  Waters  and  his  wife  and  others  were  by 
the  General  Court  solemnly  "  admonished  to  avoyde 
dancing." 

Theatrical    entertainments   were    not   thought   of 

1  Mass.  Col.  Laws  1672-1686,  p.  236. 


DOMESTIC    AND    SOCIAL   LIFE.  Ill 

during  the  commonwealth  period,  and  it  was  a  long 
time  afterwards  before  they  were  countenanced,  the 
first  in  Boston  being  in  1750.  Even  singing  schools 
did  not  come  into  fashion  until  1720. 

But  we  shall  err  if  we  suppose  that  the  Puritan 
laws,  or  any  other,  could  totally  repress,  especially 
among  young  people,  occasional  relaxations  from 
religious  restraint.  The  men  found  diversion  in 
hunting  parties  for  exterminating  wolves  and  bears, 
in  house  raisings,  and  in  the  excitement  of  elections 
and  muster  days.  The  women,  doubtless,  had  their 
quilting  parties  and  other  opportunities  of  meeting 
and  discussing  the  latest  fashions  and  exchanging  the 
little  gossip  of  the  neighborhood.  And  the  young 
men  and  women  must  have  got  sight  of  each  other 
at  the  apple  bees  and  corn-huskings;  and  when,  at 
the  latter,  the  lucky  young  man  found  a  red  ear,  it 
is  to  be  presumed  that  he  exercised  his  undoubted 
right,  established  by  the  unwritten  law,  existing 
"from  time  whereof  the  memory  of  man  runneth 
not  to  the  contrary,"  of  kissing  the  girl  of  his  choice. 

COURTSHIP  AND  MARRIAGE. — The  opportunities 
for  courtship  would  seem  to  have  been  limited. 
Still  there  were  opportunities.  We  can  easily  imagine 
that  even  at  church,  when  the  preacher  was  going  on 
and  on  in  seemingly  endless  discourse,  and  the  hour 
glass  was  being  turned  and  turned  again,  there  were 
eyes  that  " looked  love  to  eyes  which  spake  again." 
At  any  rate  the  early  Puritans  believed  in  marrying. 
They  married  young  and  did  not  spend  much  time 
in  mourning  for  a  lost  mate,  but  got  another  as  soon 
as  practicable.  Every  encouragement  to  marriage 


112  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

was  given  by  the  laws.  Still  the  young  man  had  to 
be  careful  that  he  did  not  persist  in  getting  his  sweet 
heart's  affections  without  the  consent  of  her  parents. 
If  he  did  he  was  liable  to  be  fined,  for  courting  a 
"mayd"  without  the  consent  of  her  parents  was  ex 
pressly  forbidden.  But,  in  favor  of  the  children  and 
"mayds,"  it  was  provided  that  "If  any  person  shall 
wilfully  and  unreasonably  deny  any  child,  timely  or 
convenient  marriage,  or  shall  exercise  any  unatural 
severity  toward  them,  such  children  shall  have  liberty 
to  complaine  to  Authority  for  redress  in  such  cases."1 

The  law  required  that  notice  of  the  intention  of 
the  parties  to  be  married  should  be  published  or 
posted  in  the  town  where  they  resided,  or,  if  they  re 
sided  in  different  towns,  then  in  both.  The  marriage 
ceremony  was  performed,  not  by  a  minister,  but  by 
a  civil  magistrate,  and  the  preaching  of  sermons  on 
such  occasions  was  allowed  with  great  caution  be 
cause,  says  Winthrop2,  "We  were  not  willing  to 
bring  in  the  English  custom  of  ministers  performing 
the  solemnity  of  marriage,  which  sermons  at  such 
times  might  induce,  but  if  any  ministers  were  present 
and  would  bestow  a  word  of  exhortation,  etc.,  it  was 
permitted."  Marriage  rings  were  not  allowed,  the 
old  Puritans,  according  to  Morton,3  believing  "that  it 
is  a  relique  of  popery  to  make  use  of  a  ring  in  mar 
riage,  and  that  it  is  a  diabolicall  circle  for  the  Devil  to 
daunce  in." 

It  is  to  be  presumed  that  the  young  ladies  in  those 
days  were  as  apt  as  they  are  now  in  finding  expedi- 

1  Col.  Laws  1660-1672,  p.  137. 

2Vol.  2,  314. 

3  New  English  Canaan,  p.  118. 


DOMESTIC   AND    SOCIAL   LIFE.  113 

ents  to  avoid  the  attentions  of  suitors  who  were  not 
favored.  Judge  Sewall  tells  us  how  his  daughter 
Betty,  when  Capt.  Tuthill  called,  ran  away  and  hid 
in  the  family  coach  and  remained  until  he  had  de 
parted. 

The  etiquette  of  the  first  families  of  Boston  in  early 
times  seems  to  have  required  that  the  parents  of  the 
young  man  who  was  permitted  by  the  parents  of 
a  young  lady  to  wait  upon  her,  should  thank  the 
latter  for  the  honor  so  accorded.  At  least  Judge 
Sewall  in  his  diary  records  that  he  was  so  thanked  by 
the  parents  of  those  who  afterward  married  his 
daughters,  Betty  and  Judith.  And  he  records  with 
evident  satisfaction  how  "Gov.  Dudley  visits  me  in* 
his  Chariot;  speaks  to  me  in  behalf  of  Col.  Wm. 
Dudley,  that  I  would  give  him  leave  that  he  might 
visit  my  daughter  Judith .  I  said  '  twas  a  weighty  mat 
ter.  I  would  consider  of  it,  etc."1 

The  narrative  which  Judge  Sewall  has  giyen  us  of 
his  own  courtships  should  not  be  overlooked.  The 
period  covered  by  them  was  not  so  long  after  the  com 
monwealth  period  as  to  lead  us  to  suppose  that  there 
had  been,  in  the  meantime,  any  marked  changes  in 
the  customs  of  Boston  society  from  what  they  were 
towards  the  end  of  the  commonwealth. 

It  is  true  that  the  judge's  account  is  not  so  poetical 
as  the  "  Courtship  of  Miles  Standish,"  and  it  is  also 
true  that  it  is  only  the  account  of  the  courtships  of 
an  aged  widower,  but  it  is  the  only  record  extant  of 
Puritan  courtships  in  early  times  which  enters  into 

1  Sewall  Papers,  Vol.  3,  p.  164. 
PUR.  REP.— 8 


114  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

the  minutest  details  with  scrupulous  adherence  to  the 
exact  facts.1 

The  Judge's  first  wife,  who  had  borne  him  fourteen 
children,  died  October  19,  1717.  On  February  6,  fol 
lowing,2  the  Judge  records:  "This  morning  wander 
ing  in  my  mind  whether  to  live  a  Single  or  a  Mar 
ried  Life."  After  some  further  mental  debate,  and 
apparently  some  indecision,  as  to  whom  to  select  of 
various  widows  whom  he  evidently  had  in  mind,  he 
made  court  to  the  widow  Dennison,  whose  husband 
had  been  dead  but  a  short  time,  the  Judge  having 
written  his  will.  But  in  this,  as  in  all  his  subsequent 
courtships,  it  is  plain  that  the  promptings  of  Cupid 
never  caused  the  Judge  to  lose  sight  of  the  financial 
considerations  entering  into  his  contemplated  matri 
monial  contracts. 

The  editors  of  his  diary  mildly  speak  of  his  court 
ship  of  Mrs.  Dennison  as  "infelicitous."  It  was 
broken  off  because,  though  the  Judge  writes,  "My 
bowels  yern  towards  Mrs.  Dennison,"  he  and  the 
widow  could  not  agree  upon  the  terms  of  a  marriage 
settlement.  As  she  construed  the  terms  proposed  by 
the  Judge,  "  She  said  she  thought  'twas  hard  to  part 
with  All  and  have  nothing  to  bestow  on  her  Kin 
dred."  The  judge  records  that  "God  directs  me  in 
his  Providence  to  desist,"  but  the  impression  left  by 
the  Judge's  own  admission  is  that  worldly  considera 
tions  of  his  own,  rather  than  God's  providence, 
caused  the  breaking  off  of  the  match. 

He  next  courted,  and  afterwards  married,  the 
widow  Tilley.  She  died  May  26,  1720,  the  Judge 

1  See  Sewall  Papers,  Vol.  3. 

2  Papers,  Vol.  3,  p.  164. 


DOMESTIC   AND    SOCIAL   LIFE.  115 

being  then  about  69  years  old.  He  lost  no  time 
in  looking  about  for  another  helpmate,  and  cast  his 
eyes  upon  Mrs.  Katherine  Winthrop,  widow  of  Gen. 
Wait  Winthrop,  who  had  buried  two  husbands.  The 
Judge  and  Mrs.  Winthrop  both  resided  in  Boston, 
and  the  Judge  made  his  first  call  upon  her  about  four 
months  after  the  death  of  his  second  wife.  This  is 
his  account  of  the  first  meeting:1 

"8ri.  (Oct.  i.)  Satterday.  I  dine  at  Mr.  Stod- 
dard's;  from  thence  I  went  to  Madam  Winthrop's  just  at 
3 .  Spake  to  her ;  saying  my  loving  wife  died  so  soon  and 
so  suddenly,  'twas  hardly  convenient  for  me  to  think  of 
Marrying  again;  however  I  came  to  this  Resolution,  that  I 
would  not  make  my  Court  to  any  person  without  first  Con 
sulting  with  her.  Had  a  pleasant  discourse  about  7  (seven) 
Single  persons  sitting  in  the  Fore-seat  /r  29th,  viz.  Madm. 
Rebekah  Dudley,  Catherine  Winthrop,  Bridget  Usher,  De 
liverance  Legg,  Rebekah  Loyd,  Lydia  Colman,  Elizabeth 
Bellingham.  She  propounded  one  and  another  for  me;  but 
none  would  do;  said  Mrs.  Loyd  was  about  her  Age." 

The  guileless  simplicity  of  the  learned  Judge  in 
omitting  any  allusion  to  the  matrimonial  qualifications 
of  Madam  Winthrop,  herself,  and  the  readiness  with 
which  the  equally  guileless  widow  suggested  the 
names  of  the  six  widows  and  spinsters,  besides  her 
self,  who  occupied  the  "fore-seat"  in  the  church,  re 
mind  us  how  much  widowers  and  widows  in  early 
times  were  like  those  of  to-day. 

On  the  following  Monday  night  the  Judge  called 
again,  and,  after  some  short  preliminary  talk,  he 
threw  off  all  disguise  as  to  the  real  object  of  his  af- 

.    l  Papers,  Vol.  3,  p.  262. 


II 6  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

factions ,  and  proceeded  at  once  to  declare  himself  in 
unmistakable  terms  that  permitted  no  evasion. 

"I  usher'd  in  Discourse,"  says  the  Judge,  ''from  the 
names  in  the  Fore-seat;  at  last  I  pray'd  that  Katherine 
[Mrs.  Winthrop]  might  be  the  person  assign'd  forme.  She 
instantly  took  it  up  in  the  way  of  Denyal,  as  if  she  had 
catch'd  at  an  Opportunity  to  do  it,  saying  she  could  not  do 
it,  before  she  was  asked.  Said  that  was  her  mind  unless 
she  should  Change  it,  which  she  believed  she  should  not; 
could  not  leave  her  Children.  I  express'd  my  Sorrow  that 
she  should  do  it  so  Speedily,  pray'd  her  Consideration,  and 
ask'd  her  when  I  should  wait  on  her  agen.  She  setting  no 
time,  I  mentioned  that  day  sennight.  Gave  her  Mr.  Wil- 
lard's  Fountain  open'd  with  the  little  print  and  verses,  say 
ing  I  hop'd  if  we  did  well  read  that  book,  we  should  meet 
together  hereafter,  if  we  did  not  now.  She  took  the  Book 
and  put  it  in  her  Pocket.  Took  leave." 

The  Judge  could  not  wait  until  the  time  which  he 
had  himself  appointed,  and  called  again  on  the  next 
Wednesday,  but  Madam  Winthrop  was  out,  and  so 
he  "gave  Katee  [her  daughter]  a  peny  and  a  kiss 
and  came  away."  On  the  next  evening  he  called 
again,  but  Madam  Winthrop  was  not  at  home,  and 
the  Judge  endeavored  to  propitiate  the  servants  by, 
giving  "Sarah  Chickering  the  maid  2s,"  and  "Juno,! 
who  brought  in  wood  is,"  and  the  nurse  iSd.,  "hav 
ing  no  other  small  bill."  When  Madam  Winthrop 
appeared,  the  Judge  again  renewed  his  solicitations 
and  "gave  her  a  piece  of  Mrs.  Belcher's  Cake  and 
Ginger-Bread,  wrapped  up  in  a  clean  sheet  of  Paper; 
told  her  of  her  Father's  kindness  to  me  when  Treas- 


DOMESTIC   AND    SOCIAL    LIFE.  117 

urer,  and  I  Constable.  My  daughter  Judith  wasgon 
from  me  and  I  was  more  lonsom,  might  help  to  for 
ward  one  another  in  our  Journey  to  Canaan."  But 
the  widow  remained  obdurate. 

The  next  time  he  called,  she  treated  him  courte 
ously;  but  the  next  time  after  that  he  tells  us  that: 

"She  was  full  of  work  behind  a  Stand."  Her  "Counte 
nance  was  much  changed  from  what  'twas  on  Monday,  look'd 
dark  and  lowering.  At  last,  the  work  (black  stuff  or  Silk), 
was  taken  away,  I  got  my  Chair  in  place,  had  some  Con 
verse  but  very  cold  and  indifferent  to  what  'twas  before. 
Asked  her  to  acquit  me  of  Rudeness  if  I  drew  off  her  Glove. 
Enquiring  the  reason,  I  told  her  'twas  great  odds  between 
handling  a  dead  Goat  and  a  living  Lady.  Got  it  off."  But 
she  yielded  no  farther,  although  the  Judge  "told  her  the 
reason  why  I  came  every  other  night  was  lest  I  should 
drink  too  deep  draughts  of  Pleasure.  She  had  talk'd  of 
Canary,  her  kisses  were  to  me  better  than  the  best  Canary." 

Nevertheless,  the  Judge  continued  to  press  his 
suit.  He  made  her  presents  of  books  and,  with  an 
accurate  perception  of  women's  tastes,  he  did  not 
forget  to  give  her  almonds  and  other  dainties.  Once 
he  "  gave  her  about  %  pound  of  Sugar  Almonds, 
cost  33  per  <£.  She  seemed  much  pleas'd  with  them, 
ask'd  what  they  cost." 

The  Judge's  courtship  of  Mrs.  Winthrop  did 
not  progress  so  far  as  to  involve  the  settlement  of 
financial  questions,  though  she  quizzed  the  Judge 
about  a  rumor  that  she  professed  to  have  heard  about 
his  having  given  all  his  property  to  his  children, 
which  the  Judge  vigorously  denied.  Once  she  took 


Il8  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

occasion  "to  speak  pretty  earnestly"  about  the 
Judge's  "  keeping  a  Coach,"  she  insisting  that 
"  'twould  cost  but  £40,"  while  the  Judge  contended 
that  "  'twould  cost  £100  per  annum." 

The  Judge  found  that  the  widow's  moods  were 
variable.  Sometimes  she  treated  him  "with  a  great 
deal  of  Curtesy;  Wine;  Marmalade,"  and  on  an 
other  occasion  he  says  that  she  gave  him  "  a  Dram 
of  Black  Cherry  Brandy  and  gave  me  a  lump  of  the 
Sugar  that  was  in  it."  But  the  widow  soon  began 
to  indicate  to  the  Judge  that  his  courtship  was  in  vain. 
Sometimes  she  would  keep  him  waiting  before  she 
came  in,  and  thereupon  the  Judge  would  have  to 
put  in  the  time  reading  the  Bible  and  other  good 
books;  she  did  not  array  herself  "  in  Clean  Linen  as 
Sometimes";  she  "offered  not  to  help  him  "  put  on 
his  great  coat  when  he  left;  she  failed  to  replenish 
the  fire  when  it  burned  low;  she  excused  herself 
from  sending  her  servant  to  light  him  home,  on  the 
ground  that  Juno  was  tired  and  had  gone  to  bed,  and 
that  it  was  light  enough  to  see  without  a  lantern. 
She  also  "  quoted  the  Apostle  Paul  affirming  that  a 
single  life  was  better  than  a  married,"  and  once  she 
was  so  unkind  as  to  suggest  to  him  his  "needing  a 
Wigg." 

The  Judge's  narrative  of  his  last  visit  on  Monday, 
Nov.  7,  1720,  is  as  follows: 

"I  went  to  Mad.  Winthrop ;  found  her  rocking  her  little 
Katee  in  the  Cradle.  I  excus'd  my  Coming  so  late  (near 
eight).  She  set  me  an  arm'd  Chair  and  Cusheon;  and  so 
the  Cradle  was  between  her  arm'd  Chair  and  mine.  Gave 
her  the  remnant  of  my  Almonds ;  She  did  not  eat  of  them 


DOMESTIC   AND    SOCIAL   LIFE.  119 

as  before,  but  laid  them  away ;  I  said  I  came  to  enquire 
whether  she  had  alter 'd  her  mind  since  Friday  or  remained 
of  the  same  mind  still.  She  said,  Thereabouts.  I  told  her 
I  loved  her,  and  was  so  fond  as  to  think  that  she  loved  me. 
She  said  had  great  respect  for  me.  *  *  *  The  Fire 
was  come  to  one  short  Brand,  besides  the  Block,  which 
Brand  was  set  up  in  end ;  at  last  it  fell  to  pieces,  and  no 
Recruit  was  made.  She  gave  me  a  Glass  of  Wine.  I  think 
I  repeated  again  that  I  would  go  home  and  bewail  my  Rash 
ness  in  making  more  haste  than  good  Speed.  I  would  en 
deavor  to  contain  myself  and  not  go  on  to  sollicit  her  to  do 
that  which  she  would  not  Consent  to.  Took  leave  of  her. 
As  carne  down  the  steps  she  bid  me  have  a  care.  Treated 
me  Courteously.  *  *  I  did  not  bid  her  draw  off  her 

Glove  as  sometime  I  had  done.  Her  dress  was  not  so 
clean  as  sometime  before  it  had  been.  Jehovah  jireh." 

The  Judge  seems  by  this  time  to  have  taken  the 
hint,  and  he  did  not  renew  his  visits  to  Madam 
Winthrop,  but  cast  his  eyes  upon  the  widow  Martha 
Ruggles,  carefully  beginning  the  siege  by  first  writing 
to  her  brother,  Timothy  Woodbridge,  a  letter  which 
the  editors  of  the  "  Letter-Book  "  pronounce  "one  of 
the  most  interesting  and  certainly  one  of  the  most 
characteristic  of  the  whole  collection."  In  this  letter 
he  says  :l 

' '  I  remember  when  I  was  going  from  school  at  Newbury, 
I  have  sometime  met  your  Sisters  Martha,  and  Mary,  at  the 
end  of  Mrs.  Noyes's  Lane,  coming  from  their  Schoole  at 
Chandler's  Lane,  in  their  Hanging  Sleeves;  and  have  had 
the  pleasure  of  Speaking  with  them :  And  I  could  find  in 
my  heart  to  speak  with  Mrs.  Martha  again,  now  I  my  self 

1  Letters,  Vol.  2,  p.  133. 


120  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

am  reduc'd  to  my  Hanging  Sleeves.  The  truth  is,  I  have 
little  Occasion  for  a  Wife,  but  for  the  sake  of  Modesty,  and 
to  cherish  me  in  my  advanced  years  (I  was  born  March  28, 
1652)  Methinks  I  could  venture  to  lay  my  Weary  head  in 
her  Lap,  if  it  might  be  brought  to  pass  upon  Honest  Con- 
ditions,.  You  know  your  Sister's  Age,  and  Disposition, 
and  Circumstances,  better  than  I  doe.  I  should  be  glad  of 
your  Advice  in  my  Fluctuations." 

But  the  widow  Ruggles  did  not  look  kindly  on 
the  Judge's  suit,  and,  after  having  twice  proposed  to 
her  and  having  been  twice  rejected,  he  next  wooed 
and  won  the  widow  Gibbs,  to  whom  he  was  married 
on  March  29,  1722. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  the  rec 
ord  of  the  courtships  of  Judge  Sewall  is  the  record 
of  the  courtships  of  an  old  man,  after  the  infirmities, 
and  some  of  the  follies,  of  old  age  had  come  upon 
him. 

Among  people  of  considerable  fortunes,  the  Eng 
lish  custom  prevailed  of  settling  property  rights 
and  fixing  the  bride's  portion  by  ante-nuptial  agree 
ments,  and  in  the  making  of  them,  as  appears  from 
Judge  Sewall' s  diary,  there  was  often  a  good  deal 
of  what  in  this  age  would  be  looked  upon  as  higgling 
and  driving  of  sharp  bargains. 

It  is  not  probable  that  the  marriage  portions  or 
wedding  outfits  of  the  brides  were  very  costly  until 
long  after  the  beginning  of  the  commonwealth,  and 
not  then  unless  the  parents  were  in  far  more  affluent 
circumstances  than  the  most  of  their  neighbors. 

The  tradition  is  that  John  Hull,  the  maker  of  the 
Pine  Tree  shillings,  gave  his  daughter  her  weight  in 


DOMESTIC    AND    SOCIAL    LIFE.  121 

them  for  her  wedding  portion.  But  there  was  only 
one  John  Hull,  and,  besides,  the  tradition  is  not  well 
authenticated. 

Judge  Sewall  ordered  from  London  a  wedding 
outfit  for  his  daughter  Judith,  which  comprised  the 
following:1 

"  Curtains  &  Vallens  for  a  Bed  with  Counterpane  Head 
Cloth  and  Tester  made  of  good  yellow  waterd  worsted  cam 
let  with  Triming  well  made  and  Bases  if  it  be  the  Fashion. 
Send  also  of  the  Same  Camlet  &  Triming  as  may  be  enough 
to  make  Cushions  for  the  Chamber  Chairs. 

"A  good  fine  large  Chintz  Quilt  well  made. 

"A  true  Looking  Glass  of  Black  Walnut  Frame  of  the 
Newest  Fashion  if  the  Fashion  be  good,  as  good  as  can  be 
bought  for  five  or  six  pounds. 

"A  second  Looking  Glass  as  good  as  can  be  bought  for 
four  or  five  pounds,  same  kind  of  frame. 

"A  Duzen  of  good  Black  Walnut  Chairs  fine  Cane  with 
a  Couch. 

"A  Duzen  of  Cane  Chairs  of  a  Different  Figure  and  a 
great  Chair  for  a  Chamber ;  all  Black  Walnut 

"One  bell-metal  Skillet  of  two  Quarts,  one  ditto  one 
Quart. 

"One  good  large  Warming  Pan  bottom  and  cover  fit  for 
an  Iron  handle. 

"Four  pair  of  strong  Iron  Dogs  with  Brass  heads  about  5 
or  6  shillings  a  pair. 

"A  Brass  Hearth  for  a  Chamber  with  Dogs  Shovel 
Tongs  &  Fender  of  the  newest  Fashion  (the  Fire  is  to  ly 
upon  Iron). 

"A  strong  Brass  Mortar  That  will  hold  about  a  Quart 
with  a  Pestle. 

1  Sewall's  Letters,  Vol.  2,  pp.  105-6. 


122          THE  PURITAN  REPUBLIC. 

"Two  pair  of  large  Brass  sliding  Candlesticks  about  4 
shillings  a  Pair. 

"Two  pair  of  large  Brass  Candlesticks  not  sliding  of  the 
newest  Fashion  about  5  or  6  shillings  a  pair. 

"Four  Brass  Snuffers  with  stands. 

"Six  small  strong  Brass  Chafing  dishes  about  4  shillings 
apiece. 

"One  Brass  basting  Ladle;   one  larger  Brass  Ladle. 

"One  pair  of  Chamber  Bellows  with  Brass  Noses. 

"One  small  hair  Broom  suitable  to  the  Bellows. 

"One  Duzen  of  large  hard-mettal  Pewter  Plates  new 
fashion,  weighing  about  fourteen  pounds. 

"One  Duzen  hard-mettal  Pewter  Porringers. 

"Four  Duzen  of  Small  glass  Salt  Cellars  of  white  glass; 
Smooth  not  wrought,  and  without  a  foot. 

"A  Duzen  of  good  Ivory-hafted  Knives  and  Forks." 

At  the  Howe  Family  Gathering  in  South  Fram- 
ingham,  Mass.,  in  1871,  there  was  exhibited  a  docu 
ment  showing  the  marriage  portion  given  as  late  as 
1784  by  Nehemiah  Howe,  then  of  Vermont  but 
formerly  of  Marlborough,  Mass.,  to  his  daughter 
Beulah,  in  which  were  enumerated  the  following 
very  useful  and  essential  articles: 

£      s.     d. 

One  cow 3 

A  chist  of    draws 2 

One  feather  bed 3     10 

8   sheets 4 

2  table  cloths 12 

I   coverlid I        5 

1  Beed   quilt I        5 

2  Beed  ticks    I        5 

I  foot  wheel  .        I 


DOMESTIC   AND   SOCIAL  LIFE.  123 

£        S.      d. 

1  grate  wheel 8 

a  looking  glass 9 

a  frying    pan 4 

2  tubs 7 

2  tables 9 

4  chars    IO 

I  pillian 6 

I  tramil 7 

I  fire  place  tongs 12 

I  testing   iron    3 

a  horse    8 

Land  in  Poultney 10 


Scant  as  was  the  wedding  outfit  of  Miss  Beulah, 
compared  with  that  of  Miss  Judith,  it  is  probable 
that  the  former's  was  far  more  elaborate  than  that  of 
most  of  the  New  England  brides,  especially  in  the 
early  part  of  the  commonwealth  period. 

Mention  has  been  made  of  the  causes  for  divorce. 
In  at  least  one  instance  the  General  Court  made  the 
singular  experiment  of  trying  to  compel  a  husband 
and  wife  to  stick  to  each  other.  This  was  in  the 
case  of  the  Rev.  Stephen  Batchelor,  of  Lynn,  who, 
when  nearly  ninety  years  old,  married  a  third  wife. 
Matrimonial  troubles  followed,  and  in  1650  the  Gen 
eral  Court  ordered  "that  Mr.  Batchelor  and  his  wife 
shall  lyve  together  as  man  and  wife,  as  in  this  Court 
they  have  publiquely  professed  to  do,  and,  if  either 
desert  one  another,  then  hereby  the  Court  doth  order 
that  ye  Marshall  shall  apprehend  both  said  Mr. 
Batchelor  and  Mary?  his  wife,  and  bring  them  forth- 


124  THE  PURITAN  REPUBLIC. 

with  to  Boston,  here  to  be  kept  till  the  next  Quarter 
Court  of  Assistants."  But  the  frisky  octogenarian 
got  away,  after  all,  went  to  England,  married  an 
other  wife,  and  persisted  in  living  on.  Six  years 
later,  the  disconsolate  Mary,  having  become  con 
vinced  apparently  that  there  was  no  other  relief,  pre 
sented  her  petition  to  the  General  Court  for  a  divorce. 

Actions  for  breach  of  promise  of  marriage  seem 
to  have  been  rare,  but  there  is  a  record  of  one  in 
1633,  in  which  it  was  ordered  that  "  Joyce  Brad- 
wicke  shall  give  unto  Alex  Becke  the  some  of  203, 
for  promising  him  marriage  without  her  ffriends  con 
sent  &  now  refusing  to  performe  the  same."1 

DOCTORS. — Doctors  do  not  appear  to  have  been 
very  numerous  in  the  early  years  of  the  common 
wealth.  The  example  of  Nicholas  Knopp  probably 
served  to  intimidate  quacks  at  the  outset,  for  the  rec 
ords  show  that  in  1630  he  "is  fined  5  £  for  takeing 
upon  him  to  Cure  the  scurvey  by  a  water  of  noe 
worth  nor  value,  which  he  solde  att  a  very  deare 
rate,  to  be  imprisoned  till  hee  pay  his  ffine,  or  give 
security  for  it,  or  els  to  be  whipped  &  shalbe  lyable 
to  any  mans  action  of  whom  hee  hath  received  money 
for  said  water."2 

FUNERALS. — The  funeral  services  were  very  plain. 
No  hearses  were  used,  but  a  simple  coffin  containing 
the  body  was  placed  upon  a  bier  and  borne  to  the 
grave  by  carriers,  the  pall-bearers  walking  on  each 
side,  and  the  mourners  following  on  foot.  There 
were  no  special  ceremonies  at  the  grave.  No  funeral 

1  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  104. 

2  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  I  p.  83. 


DOMESTIC    AND    SOCIAL    LIFE.  125 

.sermon  was  preached,  not  even  a  prayer  was  offered, 
as  such  a  ceremony  was  supposed  to  savor  too  much 
of  popery. 

The  somber  description  which  the  poet  Whittier 
has  given  of  "The  Old  Burying  Ground"  would 
probably  apply  to  many  others  in  New  England  in 
the  olden  times : 

"  Our  vales  are  sweet  with  fern  and  rose, 

Our  hills  are  maple-crowned ; 
But  not  from  them  our  fathers  chose 
The  village  burying-ground. 

"  The  dreariest  spot  in  all  the  land 

To  Death  they  set  apart; 
With  scanty  grace  from  Nature's  hand, 
And  none  from  that  of  Art. 

"  A  winding  wall  of  mossy  stone, 
Frost-flung  and  broken,  lines 
A  lonesome  acre  thinly  grown 
With  grass  and  wandering  vines. 


"  Low  moans  the  river  from  its  bed, 

The  distant  pines  reply; 
Like  mourners  shrinking  from  the  dead, 
They  stand  apart -and  sigh. 

"  Unshaded  smites  the  summer  sun, 

Unchecked  the  winter  blast; 
The  school-girl  learns  the  place  to  shun, 
With  glances  backward  cast. 


126  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

"  For  thus  our  fathers  testified, 

That  he  might  read  who  ran, 
The  emptiness  of  human  pride, 
The  nothingness  of  man." 

No  costly  monuments  marked  the  last  resting 
places  of  the  Puritans.  If  there  were  any  tomb 
stones  at  all,  they  were  plain  slabs,  on  some  of  which 
were  graven  hideous  pictures  and  hideous  rhymes. 
Examples  of  them  can  be  seen  in  the  Concord  cem 
etery  and  in  many  of  the  old  cemeteries  in  Massa 
chusetts. 

There  was  one  feature  of  their  funerals,  however, 
which  grew  into  such  an  abuse  that  the  General  Court 
deemed  it  necessary  to  restrain  it  by  law.  This  was 
the  custom  of  distributing  gloves,  scarfs  and  mourn 
ing  rings  among  the  carriers  and  pall-bearers,  and 
sometimes  suits  of  black  clothes  to  those  who  could 
not  afford  to  buy  them  Afterward  it  became  cus 
tomary  to  distribute  such  presents  among  the  rela 
tions  and  attendants. 

The  pious  but  thrifty  Judge  Sewall,  in  his  diary, 
gives  us  a  partial  inventory  of  his  accumulations  of 
rings,  scarfs  and  gloves,  at  the  funerals  "of  some  I 
have  been  a  Bearer  to."1  To  such  presents  supplies 
of  rum  were  afterward  added. 

As  an  example  of  the  extravagance  of  funerals  the 
following  is  given,  purporting  to  have  been  copied 
from  the  probate  records,  of  the  charges  for  the  fun 
eral  of  the  widow  of  the  Rev.  John  Norton.2 

1  Sewall  Papers,  Vol.  i,  p.  469. 

2  Lives  of  the  Chief  Fathers  of  New  England,  Vol.  2,  p.  236. 


DOMESTIC    AND    SOCIAL   LIFE.  127 

''1677-8  Jan.  20.     Account  of  Funeral  Charges  of  Mrs. 
Mary  Norton : 
Jan.  20     511-2  gallons  of  best  Malaga  with  cask 

and  carriage  at  £10.13 £10.13 

50  1-2  ells  of  best  broad  lute  string  at 

10s.  ell 25.   5 

Jan.  25     Paid  money  to  Wm.  and  Joseph  Gridley 

for  opening  the  tomb I.l6 

"     28     Money,     Solomon  Ransford   for  coffin 

and    plate 1.18 

"      "     Gloves  6    doz.   pair 5.12-6 

"      "     do          2     "       "       2 

Feb.   5     do        10     "     and  3  pair 10.19-9 

".16     do        12     do     "     6  do 12.8 

"      "      do         2     do          10   do 2.   8-2 


73-0-5" 

The  Rev.  John  Cobbet,  of  Ipswich,  died  in  1685. 
"At  his  funeral  were  expended  one  barrel  of  wine, 
£6.8;  two  barrels  of  cider,  us;  82  pounds  of  sugar, 
£2.1;  half  a  cord  of  wood,  43;  four  dozen  pair  of 
gloves  for  men  and  women,  £5.4;  with  some  spice 
and  ginger  for  the  cider."1 

So  expensive  did  funerals  become  that  at  a  later 
date  (1741)  a  law  was  enacted  which  provided  that 
"no  scarves,  gloves  (except  six  pair  to  the  bearers 
and  one  pair  to  each  minister  of  the  church  or  con 
gregation  where  any  deceased  person  belongs)  wine, 
rum,  or  rings,  be  allowed  and  given  at  any  funeral." 

RANK. — The  distinctions  which  prevailed  in  En 
gland  were  recognized,  for  a  time  and  to  a  limited 
extent,  among  the  colonists  here.  Curiously  enough, 

1  Lewis's  History  of  Lynn,  p.  101. 


128  THE  PURITAN  REPUBLIC. 

this  recognition  was  most  manifest  and  lasted  the 
longest  in  the  seating  of  the  congregation  in  the 
churches.  But  even  there  it  seems  that  the  assign- 

o 

ment  of  the  best  seats  was  influenced,  to  a  large  ex 
tent,  not  so  much  by  considerations  of  birth  or  rank, 
as  it  was  by  determining  who  paid  the  most  taxes 
for  the  support  of  the  church. 

The  laws  as  to  dress,  it  is  true,  made  certain  ex 
ceptions  in  favor  of  those  whose  estates  exceeded  in 
value  two  hundred  pounds,  "  or  any  other  whose 
education  and  imployment  have  been  above  the  ordi 
nary  degree,  or  whose  estate  have  been  considerable, 
though  now  decayed."  It  is  apparent,  however, 
that  the  chief  object  of  this  law  was  to  restrain  peo 
ple  from  dressing  beyond  their  means,  partly  on 
their  own  account  and  partly  for  obvious  reasons  of 
public  policy,  and  that  the  exception  in  the  last  clause 
'was  a  slight  concession  to  those  who  had  seen  better 
times  in  England.  The  Body  of  Liberties1  also  ex 
empted  from  the  punishment  of  whipping  "any  true 
gentleman"  or  "  any  man  equall  to  a  gentleman 
*  *  *  unless  his  crime  be  very  shamefull  and 
his  course  of  life  vitious  and  profligate."  But  there 
Is  nothing  in  the  laws  of  the  commonwealth  that  in 
dicates  the  slightest  tendency  toward  the  perpetua 
tion  of  the  distinctions  founded  on  birth  or  rank 
which  prevailed  in  England,  or  the  building  up  of 
an  aristocracy  here  based  on  either  rank  or  wealth. 

Nevertheless,  there  was  a  scrupulous  regard  paid 
to  the  titles,  civil,  military,  or  religious,  of  those  bear 
ing  them,  and  the  captains,  ensigns,  corporals  and 

1  No.  43. 


DOMESTIC   AND   SOCIAL   LIFE.  129 

deacons  were  so  mentioned  when  referring  to  them. 
The  title '  'Esquire' '  was  rarely  applied.  Even  the  titles 
"Mr."  and  "Mrs."  were  sparingly  used,  and  then, 
generally,  in  addressing  or  speaking  of  ministers  and 
distinguished  persons.  The  terms  "good  man"  and 
"good  wife"  were  used  rather  to  denote  excellence 
of  character  than  superiority  of  birth  or  rank. 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  distinc 
tions  founded  on  family  connections  with  ancestors  of 
distinction  or  noble  birth  were  entirely  ignored.  On 
the  contrary,  they  were  carefully  observed,  and  the 
family  arms,  if  there  were  any,  were  displayed  on 
all  suitable  occasions.  When  Mrs.  Katherine  Win- 
throp  was  buried,  Sewall  tells  us  that  "the  Escut 
cheons  on  the  hearse  bore  the  arms  of  Winthrop  and 
Brattle,  The  Lion  Sable,"  the  former  being  those  of 
the  family  of  her  last  husband,  and  the  latter  those 
borne  by  her  brother,  Thomas  Brattle.1 

1  Sewall  Papers,  Vol.  3,  p.  363. 
PUR.  REP.— 9 


VI 

INDUSTRIAL  AND  COMMERCIAL  LIFE 

LAWS  AGAINST  IDLENESS. — One  of  the  first  things 
that  engaged  the  attention  of  the  colonists  was  to  see 
that  every  man,  woman,  and  child  had  something  to 
do  and  that  it  was  done.  The  colonists  had  no  use 
for  idlers  and  shirks.  As  early  as  1633  it  was  or 
dered  by  the  General  Court  that  "noe  person,  howse 
houlder  or  other,  shall  spend  his  time  idlely  or  un- 
proffitably,  under  paine  of  such  punishment  as  the 
Court  shall  thinke  meete  to  inflicte,  &  for  this  end  it 
is  ordered  that  the  constable  of  every  place  shall  use 
spetiall  care  &  deligence  to  take  knowledge  of  offend 
ers  in  this  kinde,  espetially  of  common  coasters,  un 
profitable  fowlers  &  tobacco  takers  and  present  the 
same&c."1 

In  1636  an  order  was  made  that  "all  townes  shall 
take  care  to  order  and  dispose  of  all  single  persons  & 
inmates  within  their  townes  to  service  or  otherwise."2 
By  a  subsequent  law  "neglectors  of  their  families" 
were  added  to  the  list  of  idlers.  Towns  were  espe 
cially  enjoined  to  "take  care  from  time  to  time,  to 
Order  and  Dispose  all  single  Persons,  &  inmates 
within  there  Townes  to  service  or  otherwise,  and  if 

1  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol   i,  p.  109. 
'Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  186. 

(130) 


INDUSTRIAL   AND   COMMERCIAL   LIFE.  131 

any  be  grieved  at  such  Order  or  disposall,  they  have 
Liberty  to  appeale  to  the  next  County  Court."  The 
selectmen  were  also  required  to  see  that  "all  parents 
&  masters  do  breed  &  bring  up  their  children  &  ap 
prentices  in  some  honest  Lawfull  calling,  labor  or 
imployment,  either  in  husbandry  or  some  other  trade, 
profitable  for  themselves  and  the  commonwealth,  if 
they  will  not,  or  can  not  train  them  up  in  learning  to 
fitt  them  for  higher  employments." 

By  a  law  passed  in  1682,  the  tithing-men  in  each 
town  were  required  to  return  all  such  idlers  to  the 
next  magistrate  who  was  authorized  to  set  them  to 
work  "  in  or  about  any  employment  they  are  capa 
ble  of,"  and,  if  they  refused  "to  be  regulated  as 
aforesaid,"  then  they  were  to  be  sent  to  the  house 
of  correction.  Other  laws  designed  to  promote  in 
dustry  will  be  noted  in  the  following  pages. 

AGRICULTURE.1 — All  grants  of  land  were  obtained 
from  the  General  Court.  Usually  a  large  body  of 
land  was  granted  to  several  proprietors  who  held  it 
at  first  in  common  and  afterwards  made  a  division  of 
it  or  disposed  of  it  to  actual  settlers.2 

The  tilling  of  the  soil,  both  for  farms  and  gardens, 
was,  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  chief  industry  at  the 
start.  The  soil  of  Massachusetts  was  much  better  in 
the  beginning,  before  it  was  exhausted  by  cultiva 
tion,  than  it  is  now.  The  meadows  and  the  salt 
marshes  produced  good  hay.  Wheat  did  not  thrive, 
but  Indian  corn,  rye,  oats  and  most  of  the  fruits  and 

1  Palfrey,  Vol.  i,  p.  13;  Husbandry  in  Colony  Times,  by  Edward 
Eggleston,  5  Century  Mag.,  431 

*  An  interesting  account  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Sudbury  lands 
were  divided  is  given  by  Mr.  Hudson  in  his  History  of  Sudbury ,  p.  104. 


132  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

vegetables  that  are  common  to-day  were  soon  culti 
vated  and  yielded  good  crops. 

Of  domestic  animals,  swine  and  poultry  were  soon 
introduced  and  rapidly  increased.  It  was  more  dif- 
ilcult  to  raise  sheep  on  account  of  the  wolves  and 
severe  winters.  Horses  and  cattle  increased  until 
they  soon  became  abundant. 

Agricultural  implements  were  of  the  rudest  char 
acter,  as  they  were  then  in  England.  Plows  were 
scarce,  and  those  used  were  of  the  most  primitive  pat 
tern.  Wheat  was  reaped  with  a  sickle  and  threshed 
with  a  flail.  Four-wheeled  wagons  were  unknown, 
and  the  only  kind  of  vehicle  used  in  farm  work  was 
a  rude  cart.  In  Higginson's  Catalogue  of  "needful 
things"  for  the  New  England  planter  he  enumerates 
the  following  "Tools,"  viz:  "i  broad  hoe;  i  narrow 
hoe;  i  broad  axe;  i  felling  axe;  i  steel  hand-saw;  i 
whip  saw;  i  hammer;  i  shovel;  i  spade;  2  augers; 
4  chisels;  2  piercers  (stocked);  i  gimlet;  i  hatchet." 

A  curious  law1  for  the  benefit  of  the  farmers,  en 
acted  in  1646,  recites  that: 

"Because  the  harvest  of  Hay,  Corn,  Hemp  and  Flax, 
comes  usually  so  near  together  that  much  losse  can  hardly 
be  avoided.  It  is  therefore  Ordered  by  the  Authority  of 
this  Court;  That  the  Constables  of  every  town,  upon  Re 
quest  made  to  them  shall  Require  any  Artificers  or  handy 
Crafts-men,  Meet  to  Labour,  to  work  by  the  day  for  their 
Neighbours  in  mowing,  reaping  of  corn  &  inning  thereof 
Provided  that  those  men  whom  they  work  for,  shall  duely 
pay  them  for  their  Work.  And  that  if  any  person  so  Re 
quired  shall  Refuse,  or  the  Constable  neglect  his  Office 
1  Col.  Laws,  1660-1672,  p.  203. 


INDUSTRIAL   AND    COMMERCIAL   LIFE.  133 

herein,  they  shall  Each  of  them  Pay  to  the  use  of  the  Poor 
of  the  Town  double  so  much  as  such  Dayes  Work  Comes 
unto.  Provided  no  Artificer  or  Handy-Crafts-Man  shall  be; 
Compelled  to  Work  as  aforesayd,  for  others,  whiles  he  is 
necessarily  attending  on  the  like  Busines  of  his  Own." 

Another  law1  was  passed  in  1652  for  the  protection 
of  the  farmers,  prohibiting  the  importation  of  "malt,, 
wheat,  barley,  bisket,  beife,  meal  and  flower  (which 
are  the  principall  Comodityes  of  this  Country)  from 
Forreign  parts." 

FISHING. — On  the  sea  coast,  fishing  speedily  be 
came  an  important  industry  to  supply  domestic  con 
sumption  and  afterwards  to  supply  the  demands  of 
foreign  commerce;  and,  as  commerce  grew,  ship 
building  also  became  an  important  industry. 

MECHANICAL  TRADES. — In  the  mechanical  trades, 
carpenters,  smiths,  bricklayers,  joiners  and  sawyers 
were  early  in  demand,  and  other  artisans  soon  ap 
peared,  especially  in  the  larger  towns. 

MANUFACTURES. — Mills  for  grinding  corn  and 
wheat  were  soon  built,  and  were  run  either  by  wind 
or  water.  Before  that  the  colonists  had  pounded 
their  corn  after  the  fashion  of  the  Indians. 

Tanneries  were  soon  established  and  several  laws 
were  enacted  to  encourage  the  manufacture  of  leather. 

The  manufacture  of  salt  was  also  begun  at  an  early 
date. 

A  pottery  was  established  at  Salem  in  1641  and 
iron  works  at  Lynn  in  1643,  but  the  latter  were 
abandoned. 

Spinning  was  at  first  done  at  home  and  by  a  law 

1  Col.  Laws,  1660-1672,  p.  175. 


134  THE  PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

passed  in  1655  "all  hands  not  necessarily  Imployed 
on  other  occasions,  as  Women,  Girls  and  Boyes, 
shall  and  hereby  are  enjoyned  to  Spin  according  to 
their  skill  and  ability." 

The  weaving  of  woolen  and  cotton  cloths  was  begun 
at  Rowley  in  1643. 

Other  small  manufactories  followed,  but  their 
progress  was  slow  and  nothing  indicated  even  the 
beginning  of  that  wonderful  manufacturing  growth 
in  Massachusetts  that  crowds  the  banks  of  the  Mer- 
rimac  with  mills  and  makes  the  very  earth  quiver  with 
the  vibrations  of  their  machinery. 

COMMERCE  WITH  OTHER  COLONIES  AND  COUN 
TRIES. 1 — Trade  between  the  Massachusetts  and  Vir 
ginia  colonies  began  as  early  as  1 63 1 ,  the  former  ex 
changing  beaver  and  other  skins  and  fish  for  corn 
and  tobacco  supplied  by  the  latter.  Trade  was  also 
carried  on  with  the  Dutch  at  New  York,  the  Massa 
chusetts  colonists  getting  from  them  sheep,  sugar, 
etc.,  for  sack,  strong  waters,  linen  cloth,  etc.  Some 
trade  was  also  carried  on  with  the  Maryland  colony. 
Johnson2  also  mentions  trade  with  England,  the  Bar- 
badoes,  Portugal  and  Spain. 

CURRENCY/ — The  scarcity  of  money  was  soon 
felt,  and  so  early  as  1631  it  was  ordered  by  the  Gen 
eral  Court  that  "  noe  planter  within  the  lymitts  of 
this  jurisdiction  returning  for  England,  shall  carry 

1  Boston  and  the  Neighboring  Jurisdictions^  by  Charles  C.  Smith; 
i  Mem.  Hist,  of  Boston,  p.  275. 

*  Wonder-  Working  Providence. 

8  See  Felt's  Historical  Account  of  Massachusetts  Currency,  Sum- 
tier's  History  of  American  Currency. 


INDUSTRIAL   AND   COMMERCIAL   LIFE.  135 

either  money  or  beaver  with  him  without  leave  from 
the  Governor."1 

The  scarcity  of  money  was  felt  more  severely  after 
the  year  1640,  after  which  time,  for  a  long  period, 
more  people  returned  to  England  each  year  than 
came  from  there,  and  what  specie  had  been  accumu 
lated  in  trade  with  other  colonies  and  countries  was 
exported  or  hoarded  and  silver  prices  fell  accord 
ingly. 

"  The  scarcity  of  money,"  says  Winthrop,  "  made 
a  great  change  in  all  commerce.  Merchants  would 
sell  no  wares  but  for  ready  money,  men  would  not 
pay  their  debts,  though  they  had  enough,  prices  of 
lands  and  cattle  fell  soon  to  the  one-half  and  less, 
yea  to  a  third,  and  after  one-fourth  part." 

The  Indians  whom  the  colonists  found  used,  as  a 
substitute  for  money,  strings  or  belts  of  polished 
beads,  white  made  from  periwinkle  shells  and  black 
from  clam  shells.  These  strings  or  belts  were  called 
"wampum."  The  colonists  used  this  at  first  as  a 
medium  of  exchange  in  their  traffic  with  the  Indians 
and  then  in  their  dealings  with  one  another,  and  vari 
ous  laws  were  passed  making  wampum  a  legal  tender 
for  specified  amounts.  For  a  time,  musket  balls,  at 
the  rate  of  a  farthing  each,  were  also  a  legal  tender 
for  sums  under  twelve  pence. 

In  1631  it  was  ordered  "that  corne  shall  passe  for 
payment  of  all  debts  at  the  usual  rate  it  is  solde  for, 
except  money  or  beaver  be  expressly  named."3 
Afterwards,  in  1637,  it  was  ordered  "that  corne 

1  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  93. 

8  Vol.  2,  p.  18. 

3  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  92. 


136  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

should  passe  at  5sh.  p.  bushel  in  all  payments  for 
any  bargaine  hereafter  to  bee  made,  until  the  Courte 
take  further  course  therein."1  In  October,  1640, 
it  was  ordered  that  ' '  after  the  last  day  of  this 
month,  no  man  shall  be  compelled  to  satisfye  any 
debt,  legacy,  fine,  or  other  payment,  in  money,  but 
satisfaction  shall  bee  accepted  in  corne,  cattle,  fish  or 
other  commodities,"  at  such  rates  as  the  General 
Court  might  from  time  to  time  establish,  or  as  might 
be  determined  by  appraisers.  This  did  not  apply, 
however,  to  debts  or  contracts  accrued  or  made  prior 
to  the  last  day  of  October.2 

Corn  and  silver  plate  were  made  a  legal  tender  at 
specified  prices  in  payment  of  taxes,3  and  "  land, 
houses,  corne,  cattle,  fish,  or  other  commodities" 
were  ordered  to  be  accepted  at  their  appraised  values 
in  satisfaction  of  executions,4  and  in  1641  it  was  or 
dered  that  all  servants,  laborers  and  workmen  " should 
bee  content  to  abate  their  wages  according  to  the  fall 
of  the  commodities  wherein  their  labors  are  bestowed, 
and  that  they  should  be  satisfied  with  payment  in  such 
things  as  are  raised  by  their  labor,  or  other  com 
modities  which  the  country  affoards."5 

But  some  gold  and  silver  were  necessary  for  car 
rying  on  the  government  and  foreign  trade,  and  in 
1652  a  mint  was  established  at  Boston.  The  law 
authorizing  it6  provided  for  the  coinage  of  "  all  Bul 
lion,  plate  or  Spanish  Coyn"  into  "  twelve  penny,  six 

1  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  192. 

2  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  304. 

3  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  pp.  140,  206,  294. 

4  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  307. 

5  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  326. 

6  Col.  Laws,  1660-1672,  p.  181. 


INDUSTRIAL   AND   COMMERCIAL   LIFE.  137 

penny  and  three  penny  peices,  which  shall  be  stamped 
with  a  double  Ring  on  either  side  with  this  inscrip 
tion  MASSACHUSETS1  &  a  tree  in  the  center  on  the 
one  side,  NEW  ENGLAND  with  the  year  of  our  Lord, 
and  the  figure  XII.  VI.  III.  according  to  the  Value  of 
each  peice  on  the  other  side,"  etc.  The  same  law 
prohibited,  under  heavy  penalties,  the  exportation  of 
the  money  so  coined  "  except  twenty  shillings  for 
necessary  expences."  The  enactment  of  this  law 
was  one  of  the  grounds  upon  which  the  charter  was 
afterwards  revoked.  The  master  of  the  mint  was 
John  Hull,  and  the  shillings  coined  were  known  as 
"Pine  Tree"  shillings.  But  despite  all  the  efforts 
to  keep  it  in  circulation  at  home,  the  new  money 
went  out  of  the  country  or  disappeared  as  fast  as  it 
was  coined,  and  the  barter  currency  continued  to 
the  end  of  the  commonwealth,  corn,  cattle  and  other 
commodities  being  made  a  legal  tender  for  payment 
of  taxes  and  other  purposes  at  specified  amounts, 
and,  by  general  consent,  being  used  for  almost  all 
purposes  by  the  people  in  their  private  dealings  with 
one  another. 

A  report  was  made  to  the  General  Court  in  June, 
1652,  upon  the  project  of  establishing  a  bank  and 
issuing  paper  money,  but  the  idea  of  "fiat"  paper 
money  was  not  fully  developed,  or,  at  least,  was  not 
put  in  practice,  until  after  the  expiration  of  the  com 
monwealth.  On  December  10,  1690,  the  General 
Court  ordered  the  issue  of  £7,000  in  bills  of  55.  to 
£5.  "Thus,"  says  Mr.  Felt,  "commenced  a 
method  of  furnishing  a  paper  currency,  regulated  by 

1  On  the  face  of  the  coins  this  word  is  uniformly  spelled  Masathusets. 


138  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

the  government,  and  conducted  by  its  officers,  which 
continued  till  1750,  excepting  some,  in  bills  of 
small  denominations,  for  change,  emitted  soon  after 
that  year."1  When  the  issue  of  paper  money  was 
first  proposed,  one  of  the  strongest  arguments  against 
it  was  that  the  commonwealth  had  previously  pros 
pered  without  it,  and  had  paid  all  its  debts,  includ 
ing  the  enormous  expenses  of  King  Philip's  war.2 
The  inevitable  result  followed  the  unlimited  issue  of 
paper  money;  it  speedily  fell  in  purchasing  power, 
and  those  whose  necessities  compelled  them  to  take 
it,  and  who  could  least  afford  the  loss,  were  the 
heaviest  losers. 

The  corn  and  other  commodities  which  the  colo 
nists  used  when  money  was  scarce  were  not  very  con 
venient  substitutes  for  money,  but  their  barter  cur 
rency  had  an  intrinsic  value  and  was  better  than 
irredeemable  paper  and  was  never  repudiated. 

REGULATING  WAGES  AND  PRICES. — At  the  first 
meeting  of  the  Court  of  Assistants  in  August,  1630, 
the  wages  of  carpenters,  joiners,  bricklayers,  sawyers 
and  thatchers  were  established  under  penalties  for 
taking  or  giving  more  than  those  so  established,  but  at 
the  meeting  of  the  General  Court  in  March  follow 
ing,  they  were  "lefte  free  &  set  att  liberty  as  men 
shall  reasonably  agree."3  In  1633,  another  order 
was  made  fixing  the  wages  of  "maister  carpenters, 
Sawers,  Masons,  clapboard-ryvers,  brickelayers, 
tylars,  joyners,  wheelewnghts,  mowers,"  and  other 
workmen,  and  it  was  further  ordered  that  "all  worke- 

1  An  Historical  Account  of  Massachusetts  Currency,  p.  50. 

2  Sewall's  Letters,  Vol.  2,  p.  235. 
8  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  pp.  74,  84. 


INDUSTRIAL   AND   COMMERCIAL   LIFE.  139 

men  shall  worke  the  whole  day,  alloweing  conven 
ient  tyme  for  foode  &  rest."1 

Repeated  efforts  were  also  made  by  the  General 
Court  to  establish  prices.  In  1633  a  general  order 
was  made  reciting  "the  greate  extortion  used  by 
divers  persons  of  little  conscience,"  and  providing 
that  thereafter: 

"Noe  person  shall  sell  to  any  of  the  inhabitants  within 
this  jurisdiction  any  provision,  cloathinge,  tooles  or  other 
commodities,  above  the  rate  of  ffour  pence  in  a  shilling 
more  than  the  same  cost  or  might  be  bought  for  ready 
money  in  England,  upon  paine  of  forfeiting  the  valewe  of 
the  thinge  solde  (except  cheese,  which  in  regard  of  the 
much  hazard  in  bringing)  &  wyne,  oyle,  vinegar  &  strong 
waters,  which  in  regarde  of  leaking,  may  be  sold  at  such 
rates  (provided  the  same  be  moderate)  as  the  buyer  & 
seller  can  agree.  And  for  lynnen  &  other  commodities, 
which  in  regard  of  their  close  stowage  &  small  hazard,  may 
be  afforded  att  a  cheap  rate,  wee  doe  advise  all  men  to  be  a 
rule  to  themselves,  in  keeping  a  good  conscience,  assureing 
them  that  if  any  man  shall  exceede  the  bounds  of  modera 
tion,  wee  shall  punish  them  severely."2 

In  1634,  tne  price  of  corn  was  "  lefte  at  liberty  to 
be  solde  as  men  can  agree."  Soon  afterwards  its 
price  was  again  fixed  by  law.3  But  again  in  1637 
"the  price  of  corne  is  set  at  liberty."4 

The  prior  laws  establishing  wages  and  prices  were 
repealed  in  1635,  and  in  lieu  thereof  the  following 
law  was  enacted: 

1  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  109. 

2Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  in. 

8 Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  pp.  115,  142. 

4  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  pp.  115,  142,  200,  340. 


140  THE  PURITAN  REPUBLIC. 

"Whereas  two  former  laws,  the  one  concerneing  the 
wages  of  workemen,  the  other  concerneing  the  prizes  of 
commodyties,  were  for  dyvers  good  considerations  repealed 
this  present  Court,  nowe  for  avoydeing  such  mischiefs  as 
may  followe  thereupon  by  such  ill  disposed  persons  as 
may  take  liberty  to  oppresse  &  wronge  their  neighbours  by 
takeing  excessive  wages  for  worke  or  unreasonable  prizes 
for  such  necessary  merchandizes  or  other  commodyties  as 
shall  passe  from  man  to  man,  it  is  therefore  nowe  ordered 
that  if  any  man  shall  offend  in  any  of  the  said  cases  against  the 
true  intent  of  this  lawe,  hee  shal  be  punished  by  ffine  or 
imprisonment,  according  to  the  quality  of  the  offence,  as 
the  Court  upon  lawfull  tryall  &  conviction  shall  adjudge." 

Various  entries  are  found  in  the  records  showing 
punishments  for  violation  of  the  laws  against  extor 
tion  in  wages  or  prices.  Among  others,  Edward 
Palmer  "for  his  extortion,  taking  i£  133.  yd.  for 
the  plank  &  woodwork  of  Boston  stocks,  is  fined  5<£ 
&  censured  to  bee  set  an  houre  in  the  stocks,"  but 
his  fine  was  remitted  to  los. 

The  most  noted  prosecution  for  a  violation  of  this 
law  was  that  of  Robert  Keayne.  He  was  a  Boston 
shopkeeper,  and  seems  to  have  been  a  prominent 
citizen,  having  been  a  deputy  several  times  in  the 
General  Court  and  the  first  captain  of  the  military 
company  of  Boston,  afterwards  known  as  the  An 
cient  and  Honorable  Artillery.  His  prosecution  is 
very  minutely  described  by  Winthrop.2  The  case  is 
so  grotesque  in  all  its  details,  and  is  so  curious  an 
illustration  of  the  times,  as  to  justify  more  than  a 
brief  mention. 

1  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  pp.  159,  160;  Col.  Laws,  1660-1672,  p.  183. 

2  Vol.  i,  pp.  313-317> 


INDUSTRIAL   AND    COMMERCIAL   LIFE.  14! 

He  was  charged  in  the  General  Court  in  1639,  with 
many  particulars,  of  oppression  in  the  sale  of  foreign 
commodities,  "in  some  for  taking  above  six-pence  in 
the  shilling  profit;  in  some  above  eight-pence,  and, 
in  some  small  things,  above  two  for  one  and  being 
hereof  convict  (as  appears  by  the  records)  he  was 
fined  £200."  His  offense  was  considered  by  the 
General  Court  to  be  highly  aggravated  by  the  facts. 

' '  i  He  being  an  ancient  professor  of  the  gospel ;  2  a 
man  of  eminent  parts;  3  wealthy  and  having  but  one 
child;  4  having  come  over  for  conscience'  sake,  and  for 
the  advancement  of  the  gospel  here;  5  having  been  for 
merly  dealt  with  and  admonished,  both  by  private  friends, 
and  also  by  some  of  the  magistrates  and  elders,  and  having 
promised  reformation." 

The  magistrates  seem  to  have  had  some  doubts. 

' '  I  Because  there  was  no  law  in  force  to  limit  or  direct 
men  in  point  of  profit  in  their  trade.  2  Because  it  is  the 
common  practice,  in  all  countries,  for  men  to  make  use  of 
advantages  for  raising  the  prices  of  their  commodities.  3 
Because,  though  he  were  chiefly  aimed  at,  yet,  he  was  not 
alone  in  this  fault.  4  Because  all  men  through  the  country, 
in  sale  of  cattle,  corn,  labor,  etc.,  were  guilty  of  the  like 
excess  in  prices.  5  Because  a  certain  rule  could  not  be 
found  out  for  an  equal  rate  between  buyer  and  seller,  though 
much  labor  had  been  bestowed  in  it,  and  divers  laws  had 
been  made,  which,  upon  experience,  were  repealed,  as  being 
neither  safe  nor  equal.  Lastly,  and  especially,  because  the 
law  of  God  appoints  no  other  punishment  but  double  resti 
tution;  and,  in  some  cases,  as  where  the  offender  freely  con- 
fesseth,  and  brings  his  offering,  only  half  added  to  the  prin 
cipal." 


142  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

Then  the  church  at  Boston  "called  him  in  ques 
tion"  where  the  accused  tried  to  excuse  himself 
chiefly  by  reason  of  his  having  been  "misled  by  some 
false  principles"  in  the  law  of  Christian  commerce. 

Of  course  Mr.  Cotton  was  ready,  as  he  always 
was,  with  a  sermon  or  a  lecture  that  just  fitted  the  case, 
no  matter  what  it  was.  It  is  interesting  to  note  what 
his  views  were  as  to  the  true  rules  that  should  govern 
in  trading.  We  read: 

"  These  things  gave  occasion  to  Mr.  Cotton,  in  his  pub 
lic  exercise  the  next  lecture  day,  to  lay  open  the  error  of 
such  false  principles,  and  to  give  some  rules  of  direction  in 
the  case. 

' '  Some  false  principles  were  these : 

"  i  That  a  man  might  sell  as  dear  as  he  can,  and  buy  as 
cheap  as  he  can. 

"2  If  a  man  lose  by  casualty  of  sea,  etc.,  in  some  of 
his  commodities,  he  may  raise  the  price  of  the  rest. 

"  3  That  he  may  sell  as  he  bought,  though  he  paid  too 
dear,  etc.,  and  though  the  commodity  be  fallen,  etc. 

"  4  That,  as  a  man  may  take  the  advantage  of  his  own 
skill  or  ability,  so  he  may  of  another's  ignorance  or  neces 
sity. 

"  5  Where  one  gives  time  for  payment,  he  is  to  take 
like  recompense  of  one  as  of  another. 

"  The  rules  for  trading  were  these: 

"I  A  man  may  not  sell  above  the  current  price,  i.  e., 
such  a  price  as  is  usual  in  the  time  and  place,  and  as  an 
other  (who  knows  the  worth  of  the  commodity)  would  give 
for  it,  if  he  had  occasion  to  use  it ;  as  that  is  called  current 
money,  which  every  man  will  take,  etc. 

"2    When  a  man  loseth  in  his  commodity  for  want  of 


INDUSTRIAL    AND    COMMERCIAL   LIFE.  143 

skill,  etc.,  he  must  look  at  it  as  his  own  fault  or  cross,  and 
therefore  must  not  lay  it  upon  another. 

"  3  Where  a  man  loseth  by  casualty  of  sea,  or,  etc.,  it 
is  a  loss  cast  upon  himself  by  providence,  and  he  may  not 
ease  himself  of  it  by  casting  it  upon  another ;  for  so  a  man 
should  seem  to  provide  against  all  providences,  etc.,  that 
he  should  never  lose ;  but  where  there  is  scarcity  of  the 
commodity,  there  men  may  raise  their  price ;  for  now  it  is  a 
hand  of  God  upon  the  commodity,  and  not  the  person. 

"4  A  man  may  not  ask  any  more  for  his  commodity 
than  his  selling  price,  as  Ephron  to  Abraham,  the  land  is 
worth  thus  much." 

Some  were  very  earnest  to  have  Keayne  excom 
municated,  but  most  thought  an  admonition  sufficient, 
and  "  so  in  the  end,  the  church  consented  to  an  ad 
monition." 

It  was  speedily  found  that  the  laws  regulating 
wages  could  not  be  enforced,  "for  being  restrained, 
they  would  either  remove  to  other  places  where  they 
might  have  more,  or  else,  being  able  to  live  by  plant 
ing  and  other  employments  of  their  own,  they  would 
not  be  hired  at  all."1  So  the  fixing  of  wages  was 
referred  to  the  towns,  and  in  this  way  "by  the  counsel 
and  persuasion  of  the  elders  and  example  of  some 
who  led  the  way,"  the  laborers  and  workmen  "were 
brought  to  more  moderation  than  they  could  by  com 
pulsion."  But  even  this  way  "held  not  long." 
Neither  laws  nor  the  "persuasion  of  the  elders"  can 
control  wages. 

Equally  ineffectual  were  the  laws  to  regulate  the 
prices  of  commodities  and  the  profits  of  tradesmen. 

1  Winthrop,  Vol.  i,  p.  24. 


144  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

One  of  the  principles  of  trading,  which  Mr.  Cotton 
had  so  clearly  proved  by  scripture  and  the  example 
of  Ephron  and  Abraham  to  be  a  "false  principle," 
was  "that  a  man  might  sell  as  dear  as  he  can  and 
buy  as  cheap  as  he  can."  Nevertheless  the  people 
persisted  in  going  on  in  the  same  old  way,  and  Win- 
throp  records  (in  1640)  that  "this  evil  was  very 
notorious  among  all  sorts  of  people,  it  being  the 
common  rule  that  most  men  walked  by  in  all  their 
commerce,  to  buy  as  cheap  as  they  could,  and  to  sell 
as  dear."1 

1  Vol.  2,  p.  22. 


VII 
FRONTIER  LIFE 

As  the  towns  grew  in  population  and  wealth,  the 
distinction  between  town  life,  especially  in  Boston, 
and  life  on  the  frontier  became  more  and  more 
marked.  For  obvious  reasons  there  have  always 
been,  as  there  are  to-day,  many  differences  between 
urban  and  rural  life.  The  people  in  the  towns,  and 
particularly  in  Boston,  turned  their  attention  largely  to 
commerce.  They  amassed  wealth  faster  than  those 
in  the  country  and  soon  had  larger  and  better  fur 
nished  houses.  Boston  was  the  center  of  the  com 
mercial,  the  intellectual,  and  the  literary  activity  of 
the  colony,  and  all  this  soon  became  manifest  in  the 
tastes  and  manners  of  the  citizens.  The  settlers  in 
the  frontier  towns  adhered  much  more  strictly,  and 
for  a  much  longer  period,  to  the  modes  of  life  and 
thought  which  characterized  the  early  Puritans.  They 
did  not  accumulate  fortunes  so  large,  or  so  easily,  as 
men  in  Boston,  and  during  the  commonwealth 
period  they  did  not  change  greatly  in  the  style  of 
their  houses,  their  dress,  their  manners,  or  their 
mode  of  living. 

Almost  from  the  first  the  colonists  began  to  push 
out  their  settlements  in  the  direction  of  the  frontier. 
Watertown,  about  four  miles  up  the  Charles  River, 

PUR.  REP.— 10  (J45) 


146  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

was  settled  in  the  first  year  of  the  colony  by  Sir 
J^ichard  Saltonstall  and  his  company.  It  grew 
rapidly  in  population  and  soon  the  inhabitants  were 
complaining  of  "straitness  _of_  accomodation  and 
want  of  more  meadow,"  and  they  began  to  emigrate 
and  to  establish  new  settlements  at  Dedham,  Concord, 
Sudbury  and  other  points. 

In  the  same  way,  within  twenty  years  after  the 
founding  of  Sudbury,  some  of  the  inhabitants  of  that 
town  petitioned  the  General  Court  for  permission  "for 
to  make  a  Plantation"  at  Marlborough,  alleging  as 
reasons: 

' '  That  whereas  your  Petitioners  have  lived  divers  years 
in  Sudbury,  and  God  hath  been  pleased  to  increase  our 
children,  which  are  now  diverse  of  them  grown  to  man's 
estate;  and  wee,  many  of  us,  grown  into  years,  so  that  wee 
should  bee  glad  to  see  them  settled  before  the  Lord  take  us 
away  from  hence,  as  also  God  having  given  us  some  con 
siderable  quantity  of  cattle,  so  that  wee  are  so  straightened 
that  we  cannot  so  comfortably  subsist  as  could  be  desired ; 
and  some  of  us,  having  taken  some  pains  to  view  the  coun 
try,  wee  have  found  a  place  which  lyeth  westward  about 
eight  miles  from  Sudbury,  which  wee  conceived  might  be 
comfortable  for  our  subsistence. "1 

No  plantation  could  be  established,  however,  with 
out  permission  from  the  General  Court,  and  the  first 
thing  to  be  done  was  to  present  a  petition  and  get  its 
consent,  which  was  usually  given  upon  the  perform 
ance  of  specified  conditions,  as,  for  example,  in  the 
grant  to  the  Sudbury  petitioners  who  desired  to 
locate  at  Marlborough,  "  that  there  be  a  town  set- 
Hudson,  Hist.  Marlborough,  26. 


FRONTIER    LIFE.  147 

tied  with  twenty  or  more  families  within  three  years, 
so  as  an  able  ministry  may  bee  there  maintained." 

Usually  the  next  step  after  granting  permission  to 
establish  a  plantation  was  the  appointment  by  the 
General  Court  of  commissioners  to  lay  off  its  bound 
aries  . 

As  before  stated,  the  General  Court  recognized  the 
Indian  title,  and  all  grants  of  authority  to  establish 
a  plantation  were  upon  the  express  or  implied  condi 
tion  that  the  title  of  the  Indians  had  been,  or  should 
be,  purchased  of  them,  and,  to  guard  against  their 
being  imposed  upon,  it  was  necessary  that  such  pur 
chase  should  also  be  approved  by  the  General  Court. 

Generally  a  company  of  proprietors  united  in  the 
purchase  of  the  land,  but  sometimes  a  direct  grant 
was  made  by  the  General  Court  in  payment  of  some 
debt,  or  in  recognition  of  some  meritorious  service  or 
claim. 

The  next  step  in  the  foundation  of  the  plantation 
was  the  division  or  allotment  of  the  lands.  Generally 
the  first  allotment  was  of  a  few  acres  to  each  settler 
for  a  dwelling  place,  these  lots  being  small  and  loca 
ted  close  together  for  the  mutual  protection  of  the 
inhabitants.  Afterward  the  " meadow"  land  and 
"wood"  land  were  divided.  These  divisions,  whether 
made  before  or  after  the  plantation  became  a  town, 
were  made  with  reference  to  the  respective  in 
terests  of  the  proprietors.  "Commons,"  or  lands 
for  common  pasturage,  were  usually  reserved,  and 
also  lands  for  " training  fields."  Such  lands  as  were 
not  divided  among  the  proprietors,  or  reserved  by 
them,  were  sold  and  the  proceeds  divided  or  paid  into 


148  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

the  common  fund.  Sometimes  grants  of  land  were 
made  to  encourage  the  establishment  in  the  settle 
ment  of  a  grist-mill,  a  blacksmith  shop,  or  some 
other  industry.  After  the  title  to  a  particular  parcel 
of  land  had  become  vested  in  some  individual,  it  be 
came  subject  to  disposal  by  conveyance  or  devise  and 
to  the  laws  of  descent.1  | 

Proximity  to  the  Indians,  more  than  all  other 
causes,  made  life  on  the  frontier  far  different  from  what 
it  was  in  Boston  and  in  the  towns  near  it.  During 
the  whole  period  of  the  commonwealth,  Indian  wars, 
and  the  apprehension  of  them,  exercised  a  large  in 
fluence  upon  the  domestic,  social,  and  industrial  life 
of  the  colonists,  but  more  especially  of  those  living 
on  the  frontier,  so  that  the  military  features  of  early 
colonial  life  were  at  all  times  prominent  in  the  frontier 
towns. 

Preparations  were  early  made  for  the  organization 
of  the  militia.  Afterwards  militia  laws  were  enacted 
containing  minute  regulations  for  raising,  organizing 
and  equipping  a  military  force  of  infantry,  calvary 
and  artillery. 

Every  person  above  the  age  of  16  years  was  re 
quired  to  attend  military  exercises  and  service,  except 
certain  government  officers,  elders  and  deacons,  the/ 
officers  and  students  of  Harvard  College,  school-! 
masters,  physicians  and  surgeons,  masters  of  vessels 
of  over  20  tons,  fishermen  and  herdsmen  constantly 

1  An  elaborate  account  of  the  acquisition  and  division  of  the  lands  in 
Sudbury,  with  maps  showing  the  location  of  the  roads  and  house  lots, 
will  be  found  in  the  valuable  and  interesting  history  of  that  town  by  Mr. 
Alfred  S.  Hudson. 


FRONTIER   LIFE.  149 

employed,  and  some  others  who,  for  bodily  infirmity 
or  other  cause,  were  wholly  or  partially  excused. 

Two-thirds  of  every  military  company  were  to  be 
"  musquetiers,  and  those  which  serve  with  pikes  have 
corselets  and  head  pieces."  The  army  of  the  foot 
soldiers  was  provided  for  as  follows:1 

"  Every  foot  souldier  shall  be  compleatly  Armed  &  fur 
nished,  the  pikemen  with  a  good  Pike  wel  headed,  Corselet, 
head  peece,  sword  &  snapsack,  the  Musquetiers  with  a  good 
fixed  musquet,  not  under  Bastard  Musquet  bore,  nor  under 
three  foot  nine  inches  in  length,  nor  above  four  foot  three 
inches  long,  with  a  priming  wire,  worm,  scourer  and  mould, 
fitted  to  the  bore  of  his  Musquet,  also  with  a  good  sword, 
rest,  Banaeleres,  one  pound  of  powder,  twenty  bullets,  and 
two  fathom  of  match,  upon  the  penalty  of  ten  shillings  for 
every  defect;  And  all  other  Inhabitants  of  this  Jurisdiction, 
except  Magistrates  &  Elders  of  Churches,  the  Pressident, 
Fellowes  and  Students  of  Harvard  Colledg,  shall  alwaies  be 
provided  of  Armes,  &  furnished  as  aforesaid  under  the  pen 
alty  aforesayd." 

" Troops  of  horse"  were  not  to  exceed  70,  be 
sides  the  officers.  "And  every  Trooper  shall  keep 
alwayes  a  good  Horse,  and  be  wel  fitted  with  Sad 
dle,  bridle,  holsters,  Pistols  or  Carbines  and  sword." 

Field  artillery  would  not  have  been  of  much  use, 
but  provision  was  made  for  artillery  in  forts  and  bat 
teries. 

There  were  forts  at  important  points.  Every  town 
was  required  to  be  provided  with  a  ' '  watch-house  ' ' 
and  a  sufficient  supply  of  powder,  bullets  and  match. 

The  garrison  houses  were  the  places  of  rendezvous 

1Col.  Laws  1660-1672,  p.  177. 


150  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

in  case  of  expected  attack,  to  which  all  living  near 
them  resorted.  Sometimes  they  were  built  for  that 
purpose;  at  other  times  they  were  built  as  dwelling- 
houses,  but  so  constructed  that  they  could  be  used  as 
garrison  houses  if  necessary.  Some  of  them  are 
still  in  existence.  One  at  Sudbury,  the  Walker  gar 
rison,  is  described  by  Mr.  Hudson1  as  "a  curious 
structure,  with  massive  chimney,  large  rooms,  and 
heavy  framework.  It  is  lined  within  the  walls  with 
upright  plank  fastened  with  wooden  pins." 

Military  watches  or  sentinels  were  set  at  suitable 
places  when  danger  was  apprehended.  An  alarm 
was  given  by  the  sentinel  u  discharging  his  musquet 
and  crying  Arm!  Arm!  P '  A  general  alarm  was  given 
by  '  'either  the  distinct  dischage  of  three  Musquets  or 
the  continued  beat  of  the  Drum  or  firing  a  beacon  or 
the  discharge  of  a  peece  of  Ordinance,  and  two  mus- 
quets  after  it,  any  of  which  in  the  night,  shall  be 
accounted  a  generall  Alarme,  which  every  souldier  is 
immediately  to  answer  by  repairing  Armed  to  his 
Colours,  or  Court  of  guard,  upon  the  penalty  of  five 
pounds."2 

Training  fields  were  usually  set  apart  out  of  the 
common  lands.  The  one  at  Sudbury  contained  nine 
acres. 

Muster  days  were  appointed,  varying  in  frequency 
at  different  periods.  By  the  militia  law  contained  in 
the  revision  of  1660,  the  foot  soldiers  were  to  muster 
eight  days  and  the  troopers  six  days  in  each  year. 
When  there  had  ceased  to  be  any  actual  danger  it  is 

1  History  of  Sudbury,  199. 

*  Col.  Laws,  1660-1672,  p.  179-80. 


FRONTIER   LIFE.  15! 

probable  that  the  training  day  became  the  occasion 
for  festivities  and  a  slight  relaxation  from  the  rigid 
deportment  of  ordinary  social  life. 

The  stories  told  of  the  life  of  the  settlers,  especially 
those  on  the  frontier,  during  the  wars  with  the  In 
dians,  and  particularly  during  King  Philip's  war,  are 
too  familiar  to  justify  extended  repetition.  Mr. 
Hudson1  records  an  incident  which  graphically  illus 
trates  the  life  of  the  pioneer  in  those  days. 

"The  26th  of  March,  1676,  being  the  day  for  public  wor 
ship,  arrived.  'No  rude  alarm  of  raging  foes'  disturbed  the 
quiet  of  that  Sabbath  morning.  The  people  assembled  at 
the  house  where  prayer  was  wont  to  be  made,  and  a  fervent 
petition  had  been  offered  for  their  safety  and  protection.  A 
hymn  of  praise  had  been  sung.  Their  spiritual  leader,  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Brimsmead,  commenced  his  sermon  and  was  dis 
pensing  to  them  the  word  of  life  when  he  was  interrupted 
by  the  appalling  cry  'The  Indians  are  upon  us.'  The  con 
fusion  and  dismay  which  ensued  can  be  better  imagined 
than  described.  The  assembly  instantly  broke  up,  and  the 
people  made  for  the  neighboring  garrison,  where,  with  a 
single  exception,  they  all  arrived  in  safety,  just  in  season  to 
elude  the  savage  foe." 

But  thirteen  of  their  dwellings  and  eleven  barns 
and  their  meeting-house  were  burned,  their  fruit 
trees  deadened,  and  their  farms  laid  waste. 

Even  when  no  war  was  in  progress,  the  apprehen 
sion  of  it,  for  many  years,  weighed  upon  settlers  on 
the  frontier  and  gave  rise  to  gloomy  forebodings.  A 
distant  smoke,  a  strange  foot-print,  some  unusual 
event,  interpreted  by  the  superstitious  as  a  "sign," 

1  History  of  Marlborough,  p.  73. 


152  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

sufficed  to  make  the  bravest  man  anxious  and  the 
mother  to  hug  her  babe  closer  to  her  breast. 

We  gather  from  the  old  town  records  something 
about  the  public  enterprises  which  engaged  the  at 
tention  of  the  early  colonists,  the  building  of  meet 
ing-houses,  roads,  bridges,  pounds,  and  such  other 
matters  as  would  be  likely  to  demand  attention  of 
those  who  had  settled  in  a  wilderness. 

There  were  a  few  millers,  carpenters,  smiths,  and 
other  artisans  who  pursued  their  vocations.  Lum 
ber  and  staves  were  manufactured,  as  the  forests 
were  cleared,  and  the  pines  yielded  some  tar.  But 
the  great  mass  of  the  community  on  the  frontier 
tilled  the  soil.  In  the  early  periods,  when  it  was 
necessary  to  guard  the  fields  against  the  invasion  of 
wild  beasts  or  Indians,  it  was  usual  to  have  common 
planting  grounds,  which  some  tilled  while  others 
stood  guard. 

The  staple  crops  were  Indian  corn,  rye,  barley, 
wheat,  hay  and  oats,  and  some  flax  and  hemp. 

Little  of  the  produce  of  foreign  markets  was  bought 
in  the  frontier  settlements.  What  little  machinery 
there  was,  was  of  the  rudest  pattern.  Almost  every 
thing  in  the  way  of  farm  implements  and  household 
furniture  and  clothing  that  was  used  was  made  by 
hand  and  was  made  at  home. 

When  the  weather  and  the  season  permitted  it,  the 
father  and  his  boys  found  work  in  the  forests  or  in 
the  fields.  When  they  could  not  do  this,  they  were 
making  or  repairing  farm  implements  or  other  articles 
of  household  use.  The  mother  and  her  daughters 
were  doing  the  household  work  and  making  or  mend- 


FRONTIER   LIFE.  153 

ing  the  clothing  for  the  family.  The  ringing  of  ax 
and  hammer  answered  the  hum  of  the  spinning- 
wheel;  all  were  busy;  there  were  no  idlers. 

The  dwelling-houses  were  simple  and  their  furni 
ture  scant.  Still  they  were  busy  hives  of  industry. 
Mr.  Sheldon1  has  given  us  this  exquisite  picture  of 
an  " Evening  at  Home"  in  one  of  these  frontier 
dwellings: 

"The  ample  kitchen  was  the  center  of  family  life,  social 
and  industrial.  Here  around  the  rough  table,  seated  on 
rude  stools  or  benches,  all  partook  of  the  plain  and  some 
times  stinted  fare.  A  glance  at  the  family  gathered  here 
after  nightfall  of  a  winter's  day  may  prove  of  interest. 
After  a  supper  of  bean  porridge,  or  hasty-pudding  and  milk 
which  all  partake  in  common  from  a  great  pewter  basin,  or 
wooden  bowl,  with  spoons  of  wood,  horn  or  pewter;  after  a 
reverent  reading  of  the  Bible,  and  fervent  supplication  to 
the  Most  High,  for  care  and  guidance;  after  the  watch  was 
set  on  the  tall  mount,  and  the  vigilant  sentinel  began  pacing 
his  lonely  beat,  the  shutters  were  closed  and  barred,  and  with 
a  sense  of  security,  the  occupations  of  the  long  winter  evening 
began.  Here  was  a  picture  of  industry,  enjoined  alike  by 
the  law  of  the  land,  and  the  stern  necessities  of  the  settlers. 
All  were  busy.  Idleness  was  a  crime.  On  the  settle,  or  a 
low  arm  chair,  in  the  most  sheltered  nook,  sat  the  revered 
grandam — as  a  term  of  endearment  called  granny — in  red 
woolen  gown,  and  white  linen  cap,  her  gray  hair  and  wrinkled 
face  reflecting  the  bright  firelight,  the  long  stocking  growing 
under  her  busy  needles,  while  she  watched  the  youngling  of 
the  flock,  in  the  cradle  by  her  side.  The  good  wife,  in 
linsey  woolsey  short-gown  and  red  petticoat,  steps  lightly 
back  and  forth  in  calf  pumps,  beside  the  great  wheel,  or 

1  History  of  Deerfield,  Vol.  i,  pp.  279-281. 


154  THE  PURITAN  REPUBLIC. 

poising  gracefully  on  the  right  foot,  the  left  hand  extended 
with  the  roll  or  bat,  while  with  a  wheel-finger  in  the  other 
she  gives  the  wheel  a  few  swift  turns  for  a  final  twist  to  the 
long-drawn  thread  of  wool  or  tow.  The  continuous  buzz  of 
the  flax  wheels,  harmonizing  with  the  spasmodic  hum  of 
the  big  wheel,  shows  that  the  girls  are  preparing  a  stock  of 
linen  against  their  wedding  day.  Less  active  and  more  fit 
ful  rattled  the  quill  wheel,  where  the  younger  children  are 
filling  quills  for  the  morrow's  weaving. 

"  Craftsmen  are  still  scarce,  and  the  yeoman  must  de 
pend  largely  on  his  own  skill  and  resources.  The  grand- 
sire,  and  the  goodman,  his  son,  in  blue  woolen  frocks, 
buckskin  breeches,  long  stockings,  and  clouted  brogans 
with  pewter  buckles,  and  the  older  boys,  in  shirts  of  brown 
tow,  waistcoat  and  breeches  of  butternut-colored  woolen 
homespun,  surrounded  by  piles  of  white  hickory  shavings, 
are  whittling  out  with  keen  Barlow  jack-knives  implements 
for  home  use;  ox-bows  and  bow-pins,  ax-helves,  rakestales, 
forkstales,  handles  for  spades  and  billhooks,  wooden  shovels, 
flail  staff  and  swingle,  swingling  knives,  or  pokes  and  hog 
yokes  for  unruly  cattle  and  swine.  The  more  ingenious 
perhaps,  are  fashioning  buckets,  or  powdering  tubs,  or 
weaving  skepes,  baskets  or  snow  shoes.  Some,  it  may  be, 
sit  astride  the  wooden  shovel,  shelling  corn  on  its  iron-shod 
edge,  while  others  are  pounding  it  into  samp  or  hominy  in 
the  great  wooden  mortar. 

"  There  are  no  lamps  or  candles,  but  the  red  light  from 
the  burning  pine  knots  on  the  hearth  glows  over  all,  repeat 
ing  in  fantastic  pantomime  on  the  brown  walls  and  closed 
shutters  the  varied  activities  around  it.  These  are  occa 
sionally  brought  into  a  higher  relief  by  the  white  flashes,  as 
the  boys  throw  handfuls  of  hickory  shavings  on  to  the  fore- 
stick,  or  punch  the  backlog  with  the  long  iron-peel,  while 
wishing  they  had  'as  many  shillings  as  sparks  go  up 
chimney,'  Then,  the  smoke-stained  joists  and  boards  of 


FRONTIER   LIFE.  155 

the  ceiling,  with  the  twisted  rings  of  pumpkin,  strings  of 
crimson  peppers,  and  festoons  of  apple,  drying  on  poles 
hung  beneath;  the  men's  hats,  the  crook-necked  squashes, 
the  skeins  of  thread  and  yarn  hanging  in  bunches  on  the 
wainscot;  the  sheen  of  the  pewter  plates  and  basins,  stand 
ing  in  rows  on  the  shelves  of  the  dresser;  the  trusty  fire 
lock,  with  powder  horn,  bandolier  and  bullet  pouch,  hang 
ing  on  the  summertree,  and  the  bright  brass  warming  pan 
behind  the  bedroom  door — all  stand  revealed  more  clearly 
for  an  instant,  showing  the  provident  care  for  the  comfort 
and  safety  of  the  household.  Dimly  seen  in  the  corners  of 
the  room  are  baskets,  in  which  are  packed  hands  of  flax 
from  the  barn,  where,  under  the  flaxbrake,  the  swingling 
knife  and  coarse  hackle,  the  shives,  and  swingling  tow  have 
been  removed  by  the  men ;  to-morrow  the  more  deft  manip 
ulations  of  the  women  will  prepare  these  bunches  of  fibre 
for  the  little  wheel,  and  granny  will  card  the  tow  into  bats, 
to  be  spun  into  tow  yarn  on  the  big  wheel.  All  quaff  the 
sparkling  cider,  or  foaming  beer,  from  the  briskly  circulat 
ing  pewter  mug,  which  the  last  out  of  bed  in  the  morning 
must  replenish  from  the  barrel  in  the  cellar." 

In  so  busy  a  community  as  that  of  the  early  frontier 
towns,  there  was  little  time  for  play  or  mere  amuse 
ment.  But  it  must  not  be  inferred  that  there  was  an 
unbroken  monotony  of  endless  work.  There  were 
the  lecture  days,  and  election  days,  and  muster  days, 
when  the  people  came  together  and  enjoyed  a  brief 
respite  from  hard  labor.  The  town  meetings  also 
afforded  opportunity  for  social  intercourse  and  the 
excitement  of  debate  from  which  our  forefathers 
gleaned  pleasure  as  well  as  profit.  Much  of  the 
work  that  was  done  was  relieved  of  some  of  its  hard 
ships  by  the  friendly  aid  and  social  concourse  of 


156  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

neighbors,  as  at  the  clearings,  house-raisings,  corn- 
huskings  and  other  similar  gatherings. 

Sudbury  was  the  ipth  town  in  the  colony.  It  was 
settled  in  1638  and  was  one  of  the  places  de 
stroyed  by  the  Indians  in  King  Philip's  war.  Its 
early  history  is  probably  much  like  that  of  all  the 
other  frontier  towns.  Mr.  Hudson,1  after  describing 
the  various  matters  that  occupied  the  attention  of  the 
early  settlers  there,  mentions  a  few  others  that 
helped  to  alleviate  the  hardships  of  the  life  of  the 
early  settlers: 

"Besides  these  experiences  there  were  others  that  would 
tend  to  break  up  the  monotony  of  the  settlers'  experience, 
such  as  'log-rollings,'  when  the  neighbors  collected  together 
and  helped  clear  the  land  of  logs  and  brush;  house-raisings, 
where  many  joined  hands  to  help  raise  the  heavy  frames ; 
road-breaking,  when,  with  ox-teams,  they  cleared  the  snow 
from  the  path;  corn-planting,  in  the  common  fields,  or 
huskings,  when  the  corn  was  gathered;  these  with  town- 
meetings  and  an  occasional  drill  of  the  train -band,  when 
Bryan  Pendleton  exercised  his  little  host,  would  serve  to 
break  up  the  monotony  and  enliven  the  scene  at  the  settle 
ment." 

Notwithstanding  the  difficulties  and  dangers  un 
der  which  they  labored,  the  results  of  Puritan  in 
dustry  and  thrift  were  plainly  visible  in  the  frontier 
settlements  at  the  beginning  of  King  Philip's  war. 
Numerous  villages  dotted  the  landscape,  and  around 
them  were  well  cultivated  farms  with  fruitful  or 
chards,  comfortable  houses,  well  filled  barns  and  an 
abundance  of  stock. 

^•History  Sudbury,  p.  82. 


FRONTIER    LIFE.  157 

We  have  evidence  of  what  had  been  accomplished 
in  the  frontier  settlements  up  to  the  date  of  King 
Philip's  war  in  the  early  town  and  probate  records, 
which  show  the  growth  of  population,  the  ratings  for 
taxation  and  the  valuation  of  the  estates  of  dece 
dents.  Thomas  Eames,  of  Framingham,  whose 
property  was  nearly  all  destroyed  by  the  Indians  in 
King  Philip's  war,  petitioned  the  General  Court  for 
relief,  and  his  petition  was  accompanied  by  an  in 
ventory  of  his  loss,  which  gives  us  a  fair  idea  of  the 
kind  and  value  of  the  property  of  a  prosperous 
farmer  of  that  period.  The  inventory  is  as  follows:1 

"An  inventory  of  the  loss  of  Thomas  Eames,  when  his 
house  was  fired  by  Indians  at  Framingham  near  unto  Sud- 
bury,  in  the  county  of  Middlesex,  the  first  of  February, 
1675-6: 

Imprimis — A  wife  and  nine  children. 

Item — A  house  34  feet  long,  double  floores,  and  garret,  and 
cellar,  and  a  barn  52  foot  long,  leantir'd  one  side  and 

two  ends £100.00  oo 

It.  4  oxen 024.00  oo 

It.  7  cows,  fair  with  calf 028 .00  oo 

It.  2  yearlings 003 .00  oo 

It.  i  bull 002 .00  oo 

It.  2  heifers,  fair  with  calf 006.00  oo 

It.  I  heifer 002 .00  oo 

It.  8  sheep,  fair  with  lamb 003. 12  oo 

It.  30  loads  of  hay  in  ye  barn  at  8s.  per  load.    012.00  oo 

It.  10  bush,  wheate,  at  6s.  p.  bush 003.00  oo 

It.  40  bush,  rye,  at  45.  8d.  p.  bush 008.00  oo 

It.  2 10  bush,  of  indian,  at  33.  p.  bush 03 1 .00  oo 

It.  Hemp  and  flax,  in  ye  barne OOI  .00  oo 

1  Barry's  Hist,  of  Framingham^  p.  27. 


158  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

It.  Fire  arms,  with  other  arms  and  ammuni 
tion  £006.00  OO 

It.  Butter   2Os.,  cheese  403.,  2  barrels  and  a 

half  Pork,  and  4  flitches  of  bacon  10  Ib.     013.00  OO 

It.  Carpenter's  and  joyner's  tooles 005.00  oo 

It.  2    great    spinning  wheeles    and     2    small 

wheeles,  43.,  4  for  cards ooi.oo  OO 

It.  6  beds,  3    of    them    feather    beds,    and  3 

flock,  6  Ruggs,  12  blankets 005.00  OO 

It.  I  chest  of  lynen  with  ye  sheets  and  shifts.     010.00  OO 
It.  A  livery  cupboard  with  what  was  in  it.  .  .     OO2.OO  OO 
It.  My  wife's  lynen  and  wearing  apparel,  and 
children's  cloathing,  and  my  own  cloath- 
ing,   with  clothing  that  was    my  former 

wife's    025 .OO  OO 

It.  Pewter,  brasse,  and  Iron  ware 014.00  OO 

It.  Churns  and  other  dairy  vessells,  with  other 

wooden  lumber 005 .00  oo 


Total 330.12.00" 

Even  at  this  day,  after  all  that  has  been  said  about 
the  austere  life  of  the  Puritans  and  the  sympathy  that 
has  been  wasted  upon  their  gloomy  surroundings  and 
the  absence  of  "child  life,"  it  is  not  susceptible  of 
proof  that  the  community  would  have  been  better  off 
in  any  way,  or  that  the  people  and  their  children  would 
have  been  happier,  if  they  had  devoted  to  card-play 
ing  and  horse-racing  and  other  pastimes  any  con 
siderable  portion  of  the  time  which  they  employed  in 
useful  pursuits. 

Much  that  the  settlers  on  the  frontier  had  accumu 
lated  was  swept  away  during  King  Philip's  war. 
But  after  its  close  they  immediately  set  to  work  to 


FRONTIER   LIFE. 

restore  their  shattered  fortunes,  with  the  same  energy 
that  had  characterized  their  efforts  in  the  beginning. 

During  all  this  period,  while  undergoing  the  ardu 
ous  and  incessant  trials  and  dangers  of  frontier  life, 
the  men  on  the  frontier  did  not  fail  to  attend  closely 
to  the  moral  and  intellectual  needs  of  the  communi 
ties  which  they  had  founded,  and  invariably  almost 
their  first  care,  after  they  had  provided  a  shelter  for 
themselves,  was  to  establish  churches  and  school- 
houses. 

Nor  were  they  intimidated  by  the  dangers  which 
beset  them.  Indeed  these  very  dangers  seemed  to 
have  a  fascination  that  lured  them  on.  They  were 
constantly  pushing  into  the  wilderness  and  setting  the 
outposts  of  civilization  farther  and  farther  away.  A 
hundred  years  after  the  end  of  the  commonwealth 
the  descendants  of  the  Massachusetts  Puritans,  under 
the  lead  of  Gen.  Rufus  Putnam,  boldly  plunged  into 
the  far  distant  western  wilderness,  and  at  Marietta, 
on  the  banks  of  the  Muskingum,  stamped  upon  the 
Northwest  Territory  the  impress  of  New  England 
civilization. 


VIII 
THE  PURITAN  SABBATH 

A  GREAT  deal  has  been  written  about  the  Sabbath 
in  New  England  and  the  manner  in  which  the  day 
was  observed,  the  meeting-houses,  the  ministers  and 
other  kindred  topics.1 

The  Sabbath  or  Lord's  day  practically  began  at 
sundown  on  Saturday  night,  and,  in  order  to  make 
"due  preparation  for  the  Sabbath,"  persons  were 
forbidden,  after  sunset,  "to  walk  &  Sport  them 
selves  in  the  streets  or  fields,"  or  to  be  "in  any  house 
of  publick  entertainment  (unless  strangers  or  So- 
journers  in  their  Lodgings) ."  This  prohibition  seems 
to  have  been  specially  aimed  at  6 '  youths  ' '  and 
"mayds."2 

In  the  most  beautiful  of  all  his  poems  Burns  tells 
of  the  "Cotter's  Saturday  Night,"  the  gathering  to 
gether  of  the  "bairns,"  the  affectionate  family  greet 
ings,  the  father's  admonition: 

"Their  master's  an'  their  mistress's  commands, 

The  younkers  a'  are  warned  to  obey ; 
An'  mind  their  labours  wi'  an  eydent  hand, 
An'  ne'er,  tho'  out  o'  sight,  to  jauk  or  play: 

1  See  Alice  Morse  Earle's,  The  Sabbath  in  Puritan  New  England; 
The  Ne-w  England  Meeting-House  and  the  Wren  Church,  by  A.  R. 
Willard,  i  New  Eng.  Mag.  N.  S.,  p.  497;  The  Puritan  Minister,  by  T. 
W.  Higginson,  12  Atl.  Month.  269. 

*Col.  Laws,  1660-1672,  p.  190. 

(160) 


THE    PURITAN    SABBATH.  l6l 

'An'  O  !  be  sure  to  fear  the  Lord  alway ! 

An'  mind  your  duty,  duly,  morn  an'  night! 
Lest  in  temptation's  path  ye  gang  astray, 

Implore  His  counsel  and  assisting  might : 
They  never  sought  in  vain,  that  sought  the  Lord  aright.'  " 

Then  the  frugal  supper  that  "  crowns  their  simple 
board,"  and  after  that  the  Bible  lesson: 

4  'The  cheerfu'  supper  done,  wi'  serious  face, 

They,  round  the  ingle,  form  a  circle  wide; 
The  sire  turns  o'er,  wi'  patriarchal  grace, 

The  big  ha'-Bible,  ance  his  father's  pride; 
His  bonnet  rev'rently  is  laid  aside, 

His  lyart  haffets  wearing  thin  and  bare ; 
Those  strains  that  once  did  sweet  in  Zion  glide, 

He  wales  a  portion  with  judicious  care; 
And  'Let  us  worship  God!'  he  says,  with  solemn  air." 

And  then  the  prayer: 

''Then  kneeling  down,  to  Heaven's  Eternal  King, 

The  saint,  the  father,  and  the  husband  prays ; 
Hope  'springs  exulting  on  triumphant  wing,' 

That  thus  they  all  shall  meet  in  future  days : 
There  ever  bask  in  uncreated  rays, 

No  more  to  sigh,  or  shed  the  bitter  tear, 
Together  hymning  their  Creator's  praise, 

In  such  society,  yet  still  more  dear: 
While  circling  time  moves  round  in  an  eternal  sphere." 

And  then  the  retiring  for  the  night: 

"Then  homeward  all  take  off  their  sev'ral  way; 

The  youngling  cottagers  retire  to  rest : 
Their  parent-pair  their  secret  homage  pay, 
And  proffer  up  to  Heaven  the  warm  request, 
PUR.  REP. — ii 


1 62  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

That  He,  who  stills  the  raven's  clam'rous  nest, 

And  decks  the  lily  fair  in  flow'ry  pride, 
Would,  in  the  way  His  wisdom  sees  the  best, 

For  them  and  for  their  little  ones  provide ; 
But,  chiefly,  in  their  hearts  with  grace  divine  preside." 

With  honest  pride  the  poet  says: 

"From  scenes  like  these,  old  Scotia's  grandeur  springs, 

That  makes  her  lov'd  at  home,  rever'd  abroad: 
Princes  and  lords  are  but  the  breath  of  kings, 

'An  honest  man's  the  noblest  work  of  God '  ; 
And  certes,  in  fair  virtue's  heav'nly  road, 

The  cottage  leaves  the  palace  far  behind ; 
What  is  a  lordling's  pomp?  a  cumbrous  load, 

Disguising  oft  the  wretch  of  human  kind, 
Studied  in  arts  of  Hell,  in  wickedness  refin'd!" 

Nearly  all  this  might  apply  in  describing  Saturday 
night  in  an  early  New  England  household.  But  some 
of  the  most  charming  passages  in  the  poem  would  not 
apply,  those  in  which  the  poet  describes  the  coming 
of  the  bashful  swain  to  woo  the  cotter's  daughter, 

"Their  eldest  hope,  their  Jenny,  woman  grown, 
In  youthfu'  bloom,  love  sparklin'  in  her  e'e." 

"Wi'  kindly  welcome,  Jenny  brings  him  ben; 

A  strappan  youth;  he  taks  the  Mother's  eye; 
Blythe  Jenny  sees  the  visit's  no  ill  ta'en 

The  Father  cracks  of  horses,  pleughs  and  kye. 
The  youngster's  artless  heart  o'erflows  wi'  joy, 

But  blate,  an'  laithfu',  scarce  can  weel  behave; 
The  Mother,  wi?  a  woman's  wiles,  can  spy 

What  makes  the  youth  sae  bashfu'  and  sae  grave ; 
Weel  pleas'd  to  think  her  bairn's  respected  like  the  lave." 


THE    PURITAN   SABBATH.  163 

We  would  not  lose  our  own  Priscilla,  nor  part 
with  the  exquisite  poem  that  tells  of  the  wooing  of 
John  Alden.  At  the  same  time  we  can  all  rejoice 
that  the  Scottish  maid  lived  in  Presbyterian  Scot 
land,  for,  if  she  had  lived  in  Puritan  Massachusetts, 
there  would  have  been  no  Saturday  night  u  court 
ing,"  and  one  of  the  most  beautiful  of  Scottish 
poems  would  have  lost  its  sweetest  charm.  When 
the  shades  of  Saturday  night  fell  upon  the  Massa 
chusetts  commonwealth,  all  work,  all  traveling,  all 
merriment,  had  ceased.  They  fell  upon  a  land  where 
all  was  hushed  and  quiet,  upon  a  people  giving 
themselves  up,  whether  willing  or  unwilling,  to  but 
one  thought — the  preparation  for  the  Lord's  Day. 

From  sunrise  to  sunset  of  the  Lord's  Day  there 
was  scarcely  anything  lawful  to  be  done  except  to  go 
to  church.  No  "  servile  "  work  was  to  be  done,  and 
"  uncivilly  walking  in  the  streets  and  fields,  travail 
ing  from  town  to  town,  going  on  Ship-board,  fre 
quenting  common  houses,  and  other  places  to  drink, 
Sport,  or  otherwise  to  mispend  that  precious  time," 
were  expressly  forbidden.1 

Some  of  the  ministers  seem  to  have  had  doubts  as 
to  whether  it  was  lawful  to  be  born  on  that  day,  for 
we  hear  of  one  who  had  such  conscientious  scruples 
on  the  subject  that  he  refused  to  baptize  children 
6 6  which  were  so  irreverent  as  to  be  born  on  the  Sab 
bath."  But  he  was  a  bachelor.  Another,  afflicted 
with  like  conscientious  scruples,  was  effectually  cured 
by  having  twins  born  to  him  on  the  Sabbath.2 

Absence   from    church    service    without   just  and 

1  Col.  Laws  1662-1670,  p.  189-190. 
z  Hudson's  Hist.  Marlborough,  51. 


164  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

reasonable  cause  was  a  finable  offense.1  And,  in 
order  to  prevent  any  shirking,  the  constables 
were  specially  enjoined  on  the  Lord's  Day  to 
"duely  make  search  throughout  the  limits  of  their 
Townes"  for  absentees,  and,  during  the  time  when 
services  were  being  held,  "all  Taverners,  Victuallers 
and  Ordinaries,  that  are  within  one  Mile  of  the  Meet 
ing-house,"  were  required  to  "Cleer  their  houses  of 
all  persons  able  to  go  to  meeting."2 

In  their  pious  fervor  for  the  observance  of  Sunday 
the  towns  were  enjoined  "to  restraine  all  Indians  that 
shall  come  into  their  townes  from  Prophaning  the  Lords 
Day."  One  Sunday  during  King  Philip's  war  the 
Indians  went  to  church  at  Marlborough  but  they  left 
the  meeting-house  in  ashes.  Such  is  the  irony  of 
fate.  Who  can  tell  what  thoughts  lurked  in  the  deep 
recesses  of  the  savage  mind  ?  Of  those  who  stood  by 
the  burning  pile  perhaps  there  may  have  been  some 
who  had  been  compelled  to  go  there  to  hear  the  Rev, 
Mr.  Brimsmead  preach  and  to  sit  there  for  hours, 
watching  the  turning  over  of  the  hour-glass  and  wait 
ing  for  the  sermon  to  come  to  an  end.  Perhaps  some 
of  them  had  been  put  in  the  stocks  because  they 
would  not  go  to  church.  If  so,  it  is  not  improbable 
that  the  recollection  of  their  sufferings  may  have 
added  to  the  zeal  with  which  they  plied  the  flaming 
torch. 

None  of  the  laws  were  more  rigorously  enforced 
than  those  intended  to  prevent  the  "  prophaning  "  of 
the  Lord's  Day.  The  old  records  are  full  of  con 
victions  for  violation  of  them  and  sentences  of  the 

1Col.  Laws  1662-1670,  p.  148. 
2  Col.  Laws  1660-1672,  p.  166. 


THE   PURITAN    SABBATH.  165 

culprits  to  be  fined,  whipped,  or  set  in  the  stocks. 
Miss  Earle  relates1  how  "  Captain  Kimble,  of  Bos 
ton,  was  in  1656  set  for  two  hours  in  the  public 
stocks  for  his  '  lewed  and  unseemly '  behaviour,  which 
consisted  in  his  kissing  his  wife  '  publicquely  '  on  the 
Sabbath  Day,  upon  the  door  step  of  his  house,  when 
he  had  just  returned  from  a  voyage  after  an  absence 
of  three  years."  But  here  the  Captain  had  been 
guilty  of  a  double  offense  5  he  had  not  only  u  pro- 
phaned "  the  Lord's  Day,  but  he  had  kissed  his 
wife  in  public,  and  such  flagitious  conduct  was  too 
shocking  to  be  winked  at.  He  was  lucky  to  get  off 
with  an  hour  only  for  each  offense. 

The  meeting-house  was  a  prominent  feature  in 
every  town.  The  oldest  church  in  New  England, 
which  has  continously  been  used  for  that  purpose,  is 
said  to  be  the  one  at  Hingham,  Mass.  It  was  built 
in  1 68 1.2  The  first  meeting-houses  were  simple 
structures.  They  served  in  early  times  not  only  as 
places  for  holding  religious  services,  but  as  town 
houses  for  transacting  the  business  of  the  town. 
These  were  gradually  superseded  by  square  wooden 
buildings,  surmounted  with  a  belfry,  if  the  congre 
gation  could  afford  a  bell.  Usually  in  front  of  the 
meeting-house  were  placed  the  public  stocks  and 
the  whipping  post. 

Until  long  after  the  commonwealth  period  there 
were  no  fires  of  any  kind  in  the  meeting-houses,  but 
foot-warmers  were  used  by  those  who  could  afford 
them.  The  Hingham  church  was  not  heated  until 
nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  it  was  built,, 

1  The  Sabbath  in  Puritan  New  England,  p.  247. 

2  A.  R.  Willard  in  i  New  Eng.  Mag.,  Vol.  i,  N.  S.  497. 


1 66  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

and  no  stove  was  used  in  it  until  1822.  No  stove 
was  put  in  the  meeting-house  at  Deerfield  until  1808. 
It  is  not  improbable  that  the  story  told  by  the  Rev. 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  about  the  introduction  of  a 
stove  in  the  church  at  Litchfield,  Conn.,  would  apply 
with  some  variations  to  other  localities.  The  story  is 
that  the  next  Sunday  after  the  stove  was  set  up  in  the 
church  happened  to  be  a  warm  day  and  no  fire  was 
lighted.  But  one  good  lady,  a  deacon's  wife,  who 
was  violently  opposed  to  the  introduction  of  the 
stove  thought  that  there  was  fire  in  it,  and  she  became 

£5 

so  overheated  by  her  own  imagination  that  she  fainted 
and  had  to  be  carried  out  of  the  church.  A  little 
later  a  member  who  was  greatly  in  favor  of  stoves 
came  in.  He,  too,  thought  there  was  a  fire  in  the 
stove,  and  he  made  straight  for  it  and  stood  before  it, 
carefully  disposing  the  skirts  of  his  great  coat  to  avoid 
getting  them  scorched,  and  warming  his  hands  with 
great  and  evident  satisfaction.  This  was  too  much 
for  even  the  most  Puritanical  congregation,  and,  for 
the  moment,  it  lost  all  its  wonted  gravity  and  decorum. 

The  pulpits  were  usually  nothing  more  than  high 
desks.  On  them  stood  an  hour-glass  which  was 
turned  as  occasion  required.  Sometimes  a  sound 
ing-board  hung  over  or  behind  the  pulpit.  In  front 
of  the  pulpit  were  the  seats  for  the  elders  and  in  front 
of  these  the  seats  for  the  deacons.  The  pews  in  the 
first  meeting-houses  were  rude  benches  and  were  not 
cushioned. 

After  the  construction  of  the  meeting-house  the 
next  thing  was  to  assign  the  seats  among  the  congre 
gation.  This  wascalled  "seating  the  meeting-house' J 


THE    PURITAN    SABBATH.  167 

and  was  done  by  a  committee  with  scrupulous  regard 
to  the  rank  and  wealth  of  the  members  of  the  con 
gregation.  This  made  it  necessary  also  to  "dignify 
the  meeting-house,"  that  is  to  affix  the  relative  rank 
or  dignity  of  the  seats.  This  was  a  most  important 
matter.  Sometimes  a  town  meeting  was  called  and 
"seaters"  were  chosen.  Thus  at  Deerfield  in  1701, 
five  seaters  were  chosen  and  then  the  meeting  pro 
ceeded  to  vote: 

"That  ye  fore  seat  in  ye  front  Gallery  shall  be  equall  in 
dignity  with  ye  2nd  seat  in  ye  Body  of  ye  meeting  house 

"That  ye  fore  seats  in  ye  side  Gallerys  shall  be  equall  in 
dignity  with  ye  4th  seats  in  ye  Body  of  ye  meeting  house. 

"That  ye  2nd  seat  in  ye  front  Gallery  and  ye  hinde  seat 
in  ye  front  Gallery  shall  be  equall  in  dignity  with  ye  5th 
seat  in  ye  Body  of  ye  meeting  house,"  etc.1 

Of  course  the  chief  of  the  officials  in  the  church 
organization  was  the  minister.  Mr.  Higginson's  de 
scription  of  the  " Puritan  minister"  is  so  graphic  and 
complete  that  it  would  be  vain  to  attempt  to  add  to 
it.  Sometimes  the  minister  had  an  assistant  who 
read  and  expounded  the  Bible  selection  preceding  the 
sermon. 

If  a  visiting  minister  preached,  the  ruling  elder, 
after  the  singing  of  the  Psalm,  made  the  announce 
ment  in  this  wise:  "  If  this  present  brother  hath  any 
word  of  exhortation  for  the  people  at  this  time,  in 
the  name  of  God  let  him  say  on."2 

Sheldon's  His.  Deer  field,  Vol.  i,  p.  205.  In  the  same  volume  is  given 
a  plan,  adopted  at  a  later  date,  showing  the  relative  "  dignities  "  of  the 
seats. 

8Hutchinson,  Vol.  I,  p.  376. 


1 68  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

To  preach  a  sermon  not  composed  by  the  preacher 
himself  was  considered  a  far  more  heinous  offense 
than  it  is  now.  Nor  was  the  preacher  allowed  to  use 
any  notes  "  for  the  helpe  of  his  memory,  for  such 
things  they  say  smell  of  Lamp  Oyle,  and  there  must 
be  no  such  unsavery  perfume  admitted  to  come  into 
the  congregation."1 

There  was  one  official  who,  during  the  religious 
services,  stood  next  to  the  minister,  in  importance,  if 
not  in  rank.  That  was  the  tithing-man,  who  on  the 
Sabbath  acted  as  a  sort  of  church  policeman.2  It 
would  be  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  he  was  a 
superfluous  church  ornament.  It  was  his  special 
province  to  look  after  the  sleepers  and  the  boys.  The 
prayers  were  sometimes  long  and  so  were  the  ser 
mons,  and  not  infrequently,  but  especially  on  a  hot 
day,  their  soporific  qualities  were  such  as  to  put  some 
of  the  congregation  to  sleep.  Then  the  tithing-man 
went  around  vigorously  poking  the  male  snorers 
with  his  tithing  rod.  But  sometimes  a  tithing-man 
was  gentle  or  gallant  enough  to  fasten  a  foxtail  or  a 
hare's  foot  or  a  feather  on  one  end  of  the  rod  and  with 
this  he  softly  brushed  the  faces  of  the  fair  sex  and 
brought  them  from  the  realm  of  dreams  to  a  realiza 
tion  of  the  solemn  truths  which  the  minister  was 
laboring  to  expound. 

But  to  the  boys,  tucked  away  in  the  galleries  and 
on  the  pulpit  steps,  the  tithing-man  was  an  awful  and 
awe-inspiring  personage.  The  plaint  of  some  modern 
writers  is  calculated  to  convey  the  idea  that  their 
somber  surroundings  had  sapped  all  the  characteris- 

1  Morton  Netv  English  Canaan,  p.  115;  Force's  Hist.  Tracts,  Vol.  2. 

2  Hudson's  Hist,  Marlborough,  241, 


THE    PURITAN    SABBATH.  169 

tics  of  childhood  out  of  the  Puritan  boys.  This  is 
largely  exaggeration.  The  Puritan  boys  were  strong, 
active,  healthy,  smart,  and  full  of  vitality,  and  there 
is  abundant  evidence  that  it  required  the  most  heroic 
exertions  of  the  church  officials  to  keep  them  in  sub 
jection.  But  woe  unto  the  boy  who  chanced  to  turn 
his  gaze  for  a  moment  from  the  pulpit  to  a  cunning 
little  fly  crawling  on  the  wall,  or  a  stray  butterfly 
flitting  across  the  church.  Instantly  the  dreadful 
tithing-man  pounced  down  upon  him,  and,  with  a 
sharp  rap  over  the  head  with  the  hard  end  of  his  rod, 
taught  him  the  sinfulness  of  inattention  with  such 
emphasis  that  the  lesson  was  not  likely  to  be  soon 
forgotten. 

Until  the  congregation  became  able  to  afford  a  bell 
it  was  summoned  by  the  beating  of  a  drum  or  the 
blowing  of  a  horn.  On  the  frontiers,  whenever 
there  was  any  ground  for  apprehending  danger  of  an 
attack  by  the  Indians,  the  men  went  to  church  fully 
armed. 

When  the  people  arrived  at  the  meeting-house  the 
men  took  seats  on  one  side  and  the  women  on  the  other. 
The  boys  were  seated  upon  the  steps  of  the  pulpit  or 
in  the  gallery.  The  services  were  usually  conducted 
in  the  following  order:  first  there  was  a  prayer  by 
the  minister;  then  the  minister  or  the  teaching  elder 
read  and  explained  a  chapter  from  the  Bible;  then 
followed  the  singing  of  a  psalm  which  was  lined  out 
by  the  ruling  elder,  and  next  the  sermon;  after  the 
sermon  there  was  another  prayer  and  then  the  bene 
diction.1 

1  See  Lechford's  Ne-wes  from  New  Eng.,  3  Mass.  His.  Coll.,  3d  Ser.,  76. 


170  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

It  is  doubtful  if  instrumental  music  of  any  kind 
was  in  general  use  in  the  church  services  during  the 
commonwealth  period.  Fiddles  seem  to  have  been 
the  first  musical  instruments  introduced  into  the 
church  music,  but  strenuous  opposition  was  mani 
fested  to  this  innovation,  and  we  hear  of  one  in 
stance  where  the  qualms  of  the  congregation  were 
pacified  only  by  playing  the  fiddle  upside  down. 

Judge  Sewall  visited  England  in  1695,  an^?  white 
there,  attended  church,  but  was  much  disturbed  by 
the  organ.  He  writes:  "  I  am  a  lover  of  musick  to  a 
fault,  yet  I  was  uneasy  there;  and  the  justling  out  of 
the  Institution  of  Singing  Psalms,  by  the  boisterous 
Organ,  is  that  which  can  never  be  justified  before 
the  great  master  of  Religious  Ceremonies."1 

Before  the  introduction  of  the  "  Bay  Psalm  Book" 
the  singing  was  probably  from  the  version  of  the 
Psalms  by  Ainsworth  or  that  of  Sternhold  and  Hop 
kins.  But  in  1640  the  "  Bay  Psalm  Book,"  the  pro 
duction  of  several  of  the  ministers,  was  printed  and 
was  in  general  use  for  a  hundred  years.  The  fol 
lowing  version  of  the  first  and  second  verses  of  the 
first  Psalm  will  give  some  idea  of  the  poetry. 

1  O  blessed  man  that  on  the  advice 
of  wicked  doeth  not  walk 

nor  stand  in  sinners  way  nor  sit 
in  chayre  of  scornful  folk. 

2  But  in  the  law  of  Jehovah 
is  the  longing  delight 

and  on  his  law  doth  meditate 
by  day  and  eke  by  night. 
1  Sewall's  Letters,  Vol.  i,  p.  155. 


THE   PURITAN   SABBATH.  171 

Of  course  it  must  have  required  a  great  deal  of 
piety  to  endure  such  poetry.  It  devolved  on  some 
one  to  set  the  tune,  and  this  was  not  always  an  easy 
task,  especially  with  such  psalms  as  were  in  use. 
With  the  accurateness  and  simplicity  which  character 
ize  all  the  entries  in  his  diary,  the  good  Judge  Sewall 
several  times  records  the  distressing  dilemma  in 
which  he  found  himself  when  he  could  get  no  one 
else  to  set  the  tune,  and  was  obliged  to  set  it  himself: 

"Feb  2  Lords  Day.  In  the  Morning  I  set  York  Tune 
and  in  the  2d  going  over  the  Gallery  carried  it  irresistably 
to  St.  Davids,  which  discouraged  me  very  much.  I  spake 
earnestly  to  Mr.  White  to  set  it  in  the  Afternoon  but  he  de 
clines  it." 

And  again: 

"  Sabbath,  Oct.  25.  Capt.  Frary's  voice  failing  him  in 
his  own  Essay,  by  reason  of  his  Palsie,  he  calls  to  me  to 
set  the  Tune,  which  accordingly  I  doe;  17,  18,  19,  20, 
verses  68th  Psalm,  Windsor  Tune;  After  the  Lord's  Sup 
per,  6,  7,  8,  9,  verses  i6th  Low-Dutch.  P.  M.  2-J-  staves 
of  141.  Ps.  St.  Davids,  Jehova,  I  upon  Thee  call.  After 
Evening  Exercise,  2d  part  84th  Ps.  Litchfield;  I  knew  not 
that  had  the  Tune  till  got  to  the  2d  Line,  being  somewhat 
surprized,  though  design' d  that  Tune.  I  would  have  as 
sisted  Capt.  Frary  but  scarce  knew  what  Tune  he  design'd; 
and  the  Tune  I  guess 'd  at,  was  in  so  high  a  Key  that  I 
could  not  reach  it." 

Sometimes  there  was  a  small  building  near  the 
meeting-house,  called  the  "  noon-house,"  where  such 
of  the  congregation  as  resided  at  a  considerable  dis- 

1SewaH's  Papers,  Vol.  3,  p.  164,  i  id.  351. 


172  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

tance  from  the  meeting-house  could  go  during  the 
noon  intermission  and  eat  their  dinners  and  warm 
themselves  if  the  weather  was  cold.  After  dinner 
services  were  had  of  the  same  kind  as  before.  At 
the  end  of  the  afternoon  service  the  collection  was 
taken  up — the  method  of  which  is  thus  described  by 
Lechford.1 

"Which  ended,  follows  the  contribution,  one  of  the 
Deacons  saying,  '  Brethren  of  the  congregation,  now  there 
is  time  left  for  contribution,  wherefore  as  God  hath  pros 
pered  you,  so  freely  offer.'  Upon  some  extraordinary  oc 
casion,  as  building  and  repairing  of  Churches  or  meeting 
houses,  or  other  necessities,  the  Ministers  presse  a  libberall 
contribution,  with  effectuall  exhortations  out  of  Scripture. 
Then  Magistrates  and  chiefe  Gentlemen  first,  and  then  the 
Elders,  and  all  the  congregation  of  men,  and  most  of  them 
that  are  not  of  the  Church,  all  single  persons,  widows  and 
women  in  absence  of  their  husbands,  come  up,  one  after 
another,  one  way,  and  bring  their  offerings  to  the  Deacon 
at  his  seate,  and  put  it  into  a  box  of  wood  for  the  purpose, 
if  it  bee  money,  or  papers ;  if  it  be  any  other  chattle  they 
set  it  or  lay  it  downe  before  the  Deacons,  and  so  passe  an 
other  way  to  their  seats  againe.  This  contribution  is  of 
money  or  papers  promising  so  much  money.  I  have  scene 
a  faire  gilt  cup  with  a  cover,  offered  there  by  one,  which  is 
still  used  at  the  Communion.  Which  moneys  and  goods 
the  Deacons  dispose  towards  the  maintenance  of  the  Min 
isters  and  poore  of  the  Church  and  the  Churches  occasions, 
without  making  account,  ordinarily." 

The  religious  services  having  been  concluded,  the 
congregation  dispersed  and  the  members  wended 

1  Netves  from  Neiv  England;  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  3  Ser.,  Vol.  3,  p.  77. 
See  also  Josselyn's  Tivo  Voyages,  p.  180. 


THE   PURITAN   SABBATH.  173 

their  way  to  their  respective  homes — returning  as  they 
had  gone,  on  horseback  and  on  foot,  sometimes  travel 
ing  midst  howling  wintry  blasts  through  miles  of  un 
broken  forests,  crossing  swollen  streams,  trudging 
through  deep  and  trackless  snows,  the  man  with  rifle 
in  hand  and  ear  alert  for  savage  foes,  the  mother 
hugging  to  her  breast  her  babe;  such  was  church- 
going  in  the  times  of  our  forefathers  and  such  were 
the  men  and  women  who  went  to  church! 


IX 

EDUCATION,  BOOKS  AND  LITERATURE 

IN  1642,  before  schools  were  provided  by  law, 
it  was  enjoined  upon  the  selectmen  to  see  that  none 
of  their  brethren  and  neighbors  "shall  suffer  so  much 
barbarism  in  any  of  their  families  as  not  to  endeav 
our  to  teach,  by  themselves  or  others,  their  children 
&  apprentices,  so  much  learning,  as  may  enable  them 
perfectly  to  read  the  english  tongue  &  knowledg  of 
the  Capital  laws."1  In  1654,  towns  having  50  house 
holders  were  required  to  establish  schools  for  teach 
ing  children  to  " Write  &  Read,"  and  in  towns  of 
100  householders  they  were  required  to  "set  up  a 
Grammar  school,  the  Master  thereof,  being  able  to  in 
struct  youth  so  far  as  they  maybe  fitted  for  the  Unever- 
sety."  The  selectmen  in  each  town  were  admonished 
to  see  that  no  teachers  were  employed  "that  have  man 
ifested  themselves  unsound  in  the  faith,  or  scandalous 
in  their  lives  &  have  not  given  satisfaction  according 
to  the  Rules  of  Christ."2 

The  General  Court  in  1636  "agreed  to  give  £400 
towards  a  schoale  or  colledge,  whearof  2Oo£  to  bee 
paid  the  next  yeare,  &  200  £  when  the  worke  is  fin 
ished,  &  the  next  Court  to  appoint  wheare  &  what 
building."  At  the  next  General  Court  "Thecolledg 

1Col.  Laws  1660-1672,  p.  136. 
2  Col.  Laws  1660-1672,  p.  191. 

(174) 


EDUCATION,  BOOKS  AND  LITERATURE.     1 75 

is  ordered  to  bee  at  Newetowne,"  afterward  called 
Cambridge,  and  in  1638,  it  was  ordered  "  that  the 
colledge  agreed  upon  formerly  to  bee  built  at  Cam- 
bridg  shalbee  called  Harvard  Colledge."1  This  was 
the  beginning  of  Harvard  College,  which  subsequently 
continued  to  receive  the  favor  and  support  of  the 
General  Court.  Mr.  Fiske  well  says:2 

"The  act  was  a  memorable  one,  if  we  have  regard  to  all 
the  circumstances  of  the  year  in  which  it  was  done.  On 
every  side  danger  was  in  the  air.  Threatened  at  once  with 
an  Indian  war,  with  the  enmity  of  the  home  government 
and  with  grave  dissensions  among  themselves,  the  year 
1636  was  a  trying  one,  indeed,  for  the  little  community  of 
Puritans,  and  their  founding  a  college  by  public  taxation, 
just  at  this  time,  is  a  striking  illustration  of  their  unaltera 
ble  purpose  to  realize  in  this  new  home  their  ideal  of  an 
educated  Christian  society."3 

There  was  a  book-store  in  Boston  as  early  as  1652, 
and  in  1686  there  were  eight  such  stores.  The  min 
isters  were  the  best  customers,  and  it  is  to  be  pre 
sumed  that  most  of  the  books  sold  were  of  a  religious 
character. 

There  were  some  extensive  private  libraries.  John 
Dunton,  a  London  bookseller,  who  visited  Cotton 
Mather  in  1686,  about  the  time  when  he  was  finish 
ing  his  "Magnalia,"  speaks  of  his  library  as  "very 

1Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  pp.  183,  208,  253. 

2  Beginnings  of  New  Eng.,  in. 

8  Hutchinson,  Vol.  i,  p.  444,  gives  "The  Theses  of  the  First  Class  of 
Graduates  at  Harvard  College  in  1642,"  together  with  the  Latin  names 
of  the  nine  .graduates,  viz:  Benjamin  Woodbrigius,  Georgius  Downin- 
gus,  Gulielmus  Hubbardus,  Henricus  Saltonstall,  Johannes  Bulkleius, 
Johannes  Wilsonus,  Nathaniel  Brusterus,  Samuel  Bellinghamus,  Tobias 
Bernardus. 


1 76  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

large,"  but  adds  a  mild  criticism  of  the  "Magnalia," 
which  now  commands  universal  assent,  that  "had 
his  books  been  fewer  when  he  writ  his  history  'twould 
have  pleased  us  better."  Of  the  kinds  of  books 
contained  in  the  libraries  of  those  days  we  may  get 
some  idea  from  the  account  given  by  Mr.  Weeden1 
of  the  library  of  John  Winthrop: 

"His  library  of  269  titles  is  preserved  in  the  alcoves  of 
the  Society  Library  in  New  York.  Some  of  the  titles  are 
interesting ;  there  are  a  few  Latin  classics  and  no  Greek ;  in 
English  there  are  many  works  on  the  occult  philosophy  and 
many  on  medicine,  Winthrop  practiced  it  extensively.  We 
find  Cornelius  Agrippa,  Aristotle,  Aquinas,  Erasmus. 
Grotius,  in  I2mo,  on 'True  Religion';  Machiavelli,  'Contra 
Tyrannos,'  in  i8mo,  was  hardly  as  useful  in  the  new  colony 
as  Blundevill  on  Horses.  An  abridgement  of  Coke  helped 
out  Godwyn's  'Civil  and  Ecclesiastical  Rites  of  the  Hebrew' ; 
Jamblichus  with  Lullie  Raymundi,  alternate  with  Sir  George 
Mackenzie  on  'Moral  Gallantry.'  Two  books  by  Melanc- 
thon;  none  by  Luther;  three  by  Paracelsus,  one  containing 
a  note  of  Winthrop 's ;  a  few  on  mathematics.  Flammel  on  the 
'Philosopher's  Stone,'  etc.,  is  a  type  of  many  volumes. 
Pascal  is  represented  by  '  Les  Provinciates,'  in  I2mo,  William 
West,  4to,  London,  1598,  on  'Symboleography,'  was  easier 
to  seventeenth  century  readers  than  to  us.  Astrology  is 
well  represented  cheek  by  jowl  with  anti-papal  and  theo 
logical  treatises.  Scudey,  'Curia  PolitiaeS  William  Potter's 
'Key  to  Wealth',  a  folio  tract  of  1650,  we  shall  hear  of 
again." 

In  the  Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  His 
torical  Society2  is  given  a  catalogue  of  Elder  Brew- 

1  Economic  and  Social  History  of  New  Eng.,  Vol.  I,  pp.  230-1. 
3  Vol.  5,  2d  Ser.,  pp.  37-85. 


EDUCATION,  BOOKS   AND    LITERATURE.  177 

ster's  library,  as  contained  in  an  inventory  taken  in 
May,  1644,  and  recorded  in  Plymouth  colony  "Book 
of  Wills."  The  communication  is  by  Dr.  Dexter,  who 
says  that  the  library  contained  in  all  400  separate 
books,  of  which  393  were  separately  catalogued;  of 
these  there  were  48  folios,  177  quartos,  121  octavos. 
There  were  in  Latin,  62;  in  English,  302.  Classified 
according  to  subjects,  there  were  98  expository,  63 
doctrinal,  69  practical  religious,  24  historical,  36  edu 
cational,  6  philosophical,  14  poetical,  54  miscella 
neous. 

Judge  Sewall  was  a  great  buyer  of  books  and  gave 
many  of  them  to  his  friends.  One  of  his  letters,  writ 
ten  to  Mr.  John  Love  of  London  in  1700,  gives 
us  some  idea,  not  only  of  his  books,  but  of  the  cost 
of  them.  In  this  letter  he  directs  Mr.  Love 

"To  call  upon  my  good  friend  and  Neighbour  Mr.  Ed 
ward  Bromfield  for  the  money,  which  is  in  a  little  Linen 
Purse  marked  with  Ink  J.  L.  The  contents  inclosed,  and 
are  Gold  Four  arabian  pieces,  One  double  pistoll,  Two 
Single  ditto,  One  Lewi  dore,  Five  Guineas;  One  broad 
piece  of  Charles  the  first.  Have  also  inclosed  a  Bill  of 
Exchange  for  Nine  pounds,  Six  shillings  and  Seven  pence 
drawn  by  a  young  merchant,  Mr.  James  Taylor,  on  Mr. 
Samuel  Whitfield.  The  books  I  would  have  bought  are 

"Ars  Cogitandi.  2. 

"Le  Grands  Philosophy,  Latin. 

"Heerboordi  Meletomata.  3. 

"Dr.  Charletons  Physiologia. 

"Dr.  Moors  Imortality  of  the  Soul. 

"Metaphysicks,  Ethicks. 

"Glanvils  Sceptis  Scientifica. 
PUR.  REP. — 12 


178  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

"Dr.  Wilkin's  nattural  Principles,  and  Duties.  His 
World  in  the  Moon. 

"Stallius  his  Regulae  Phylosophicae. 

"Stierij  Questiones  Physicae  cum  Praeceptis  Philosophiae. 

"Burgerdicius,  Logick  with  Heerebords  Notes. 

"The  great  Hist.  Geographical,  and  Poetical  Dictionary 
being  a  curious  Misscellany  of  Sacred  and  Prophane  History 
printed  at  London  for  Henry  Rhodes.  If  there  be  an  Edi 
tion  since  1694,  Send  the  best  Two  of  them. 

"Francis  Turretini  Institutio  Theologiae  Elencticae  in 
tres  partes  distributiae  4to. 

"Turretini  Disputationes  de  satisfactione  Christi.  4to. 

"Poles  [Poole,  M.]  Synopsis  criticorum  in  five  volumes r 
if  light  on  them  a  peniwoth. 

"A  K.  Edward  6th,  his  Common  Prayer  Book,  of 
Queen  Eliz.  The  Queens  Bible,  If  it  can  be  had  any 
thing  reasonable. ' ' 1 

In  the  same  letter  he  says: 

"I  know  not  exactly  what  the  Books  will  come  to.  If 
the  Money  doe  more  than  hold  out,  send  in  School  Books ; 
Esops  Eng.  and  Lat,  Corderius  Eng.  and  Lat.,  Terrence 
Eng.  and  Lat.,  Ovid  de  Tristibus,  Metamorphosis,  Virgil, 
Tullies  de  Omcijs,  Grammars,  constr[u]ing  Books." 

In  a  subsequent  letter,  written  on  July  ist  follow 
ing,  he  says: 

"I  writt  to  you  of  the  loth  of  June,  to  buy  a  few  Books 
for  me.  I  would  have  you  add  to  them  I  particularly  men- 
tiond,  A  Narrative  of  the  Portsmouth  Disputation  between 
Presbyterians  and  Baptists  at  Mr.  Williams's  Meetinghouse, 
Bp  of  Norwich's  Sermon  of  Religious  Melancholy.  Amin- 
tor,  a  Defence  of  Milton,  with  Reasons  for  abolishing  the 

1  SewalPs  Letters,  Vol.  i,  p.  237. 


EDUCATION,  BOOKS    AND    LITERATURE.  179 

3Oth  January;  Two  of  them.  Account  of  the  first  Voyages 
into  America  by  Barthol.  de  las  Casas ;  Two  of  them.  Ac 
count  of  a  Jew  lately  converted,  and  baptised  at  the  Meet 
inghouse  near  Ave-Mary-Lane ;  Four  of  them." 

In  order  that  the  government  might  exercise  super 
vision  over  the  printing,  licenses  to  print  were  re 
quired  in  1662,  and  in  1664  an  order  was  made, 
which  continued  for  ten  years,  that  there  should  be 
no  printing  except  at  Cambridge. 

" According  to  the  best  information  to  be  ob 
tained,"  says  Mr.  Winsor,1  "it  appears  that,  during 
the  fifty  years  which  passed  from  the  setting  up  of 
the  first  press  in  New  England  to  the  close  of  the 
Colonial  Period,  there  were  issued  in  Boston  and 
Cambridge  something  over  three  hundred  separate 
publications.  Of  these  nearly  two-thirds  were  ex 
positions  of  religious  belief  or  writings  in  defence  of 
dogmas  or  aids  to  worship."  The  remainder  con 
sisted  chiefly  of  laws,  official  publications,  almanacs, 
educational  books,  and  other  publications  which  do 
not  belong  to  the  domain  of  literature. 

Some  of  the  books  printed  were  reprints,  such  as 
Bunyan's  "Pilgrim's  Progress."  Some  were  the 
productions  of  home  authors.  Increase  Mather 
wrote  about  fifteen  of  the  books  printed  by  John 
Foster  the  first  Boston  printer. 

As  already  stated,  only  a  small  percentage  of  the 
books  composed  by  the  colonists  during  the  com 
monwealth  period  can  be  classed  as  belonging  to  gen 
eral  literature.  There  were  a  few  historical  works, 

1  The  Literature  of  the  Colonial  Period,  i  Mem.  Hist,  of  Boston, 
P-  453- 


I  So  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

chief  of  which  is  Winthrop's  "  History  of  New  En 
gland,"  consisting  mainly  of  notes  kept  by  him  in 
the  form  of  a  daily  journal,  which  was  begun  when 
he  left  England  in  1630,  and  was  continued  until 
shortly  before  his  death  in  1649. 

Capt.  Edward  Johnson,  of  Woburn,  Mass.,  wrote 
a  book,  first  published  anonymously  in  London  in; 
1654,  purporting  to  be  "A  History  of  New  England, 
from  the  English  Planting  in  the  yeare  1628  until 
the  Yeare  1652,"  but  the  running  title,  by  which  it 
is  usually  cited,  was  " Wonder- Working  Providence 
of  Sion's  Saviour  in  New  England."  The  book  is 
not  a  history  of  New  England  and  can  scarcely  be 
called  a  history  of  the  Massachusetts  colony  during 
the  period  which  it  covers.  It  consists  largely  of  ac 
counts  of  the  planting  of  the  different  churches  in 
the  Massachusetts  colony,  together  with  biographical 
sketches  of  the  ministers  and  some  of  the  prominent 
colonists,  whose  names  are  rarely  spelled  correctly, 
memories  of  whom  are  embalmed  in  jingling  verses 
or  "meetres,"  plentifully  sprinkled  throughout  the 
book.  But,  notwithstanding  the  pious  exaggeration 
of  the  author  and  his  ridiculous  rhymes,  the  book 
contains  a  variety  of  valuable  information  nowhere 
else  to  be  found.  r 

John  Mason  wrote  a  small  volume,  first  printed  in! 
1677,  entitled,  "The  History  of  the  Pequot  War"; 
and  Daniel  Gookin  wrote  two  books,  one  finished  in 
1674  but  not  printed  until  1792,  entitled,  " Historical 
Collections  of  the  Indians  in  New  England";  the 
other  finished  in  1677  but  not  printed  until  1836,  en 
titled,  "An  Historical  Account  of  the  Doings  and 


EDUCATION,  BOOKS    AND   LITERATURE.  iSl 

Sufferings  of  the  Christian  Indians  in  New  En 
gland."  It  is  said  that  he  also  wrote  a  " History  of 
New  England,"  the  manuscript  of  which  is  supposed 
to  have  been  burned. 

There  were  several  books  of  a  descriptive  char 
acter.  Francis  Higginson,  about  1629,  wrote  a  book 
entitled  "New  England's  Plantation,"1  giving  the 
result  of  observations  for  a  period  of  about  three 
months  after  his  arrival  in  1629.  William  Wood 
came  over  about  1629,  and  in  1634  gave  his  impres 
sion  of  the  country  in  a  volume  entitled,  "New  En 
gland's  Prospect." 

John  Josselyn  published  two  books — one  entitled 
"New  England's  Rarities,"  published  in  London  in 
1672,  the  other  entitled,  " An  Account  of  Two  Voy 
ages  to  New  England,"  published  in  London  in 
1674.  In  the  "Two  Voyages,"  Josselyn  writes  not 
only  about  America  but  about  almost  everything, 
celestial  and  terrestrial,  from  comets  to  "kibed  heels." 
The  volume  is  filled  with  incredible  stories  and  con 
cludes  with  a  chronology  beginning  with  "Anno 
Mundi  3720."  Nevertheless  the  book  is  often  quoted. 
Prof.  Tyler  includes  it  in  American  literature,  but 
Mr.  Justin  Winsor  does  not. 

Poetry  was  not  wholly  neglected.  The  most  nota 
ble  poet  of  the  commonwealth  period  was  Anne 
Bradstreet  who  was  born  in  England  in  1613,  and 
was  the  wife  of  Simon  Bradstreet,  of  Emmanuel  Col 
lege,  Cambridge,  and  afterwards  Governor.  She 
came  with  him  in  1630  to  this  country,  where  all 
her  poems  were  written. 

1  Reprinted   in    Force's    Historical    Tracts,  Vol.  I,   and   in  Young's 
Chronicles,  etc.,  p.  239. 


1 82  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

"The  first  collection  of  them  was  printed  at  Boston,  in 
1640,  under  the  title  of  'Several  Poems,  compiled  with  great 
variety  of  Wit  and  Learning,  full  of  delight;  wherein  espe 
cially  is  contained  a  compleat  Discourse  and  Description  of 
the  Four  Elements,  Constitutions,  Ages  of  Man,  and  Sea 
sons  of  the  Year,  together  with  an  exact  Epitome  of  the 
Three  First  Monarchies,  viz.,  the  Assyrian,  Persian,  and 
Grecian ;  and  the  beginning  of  the  Roman  Commonwealth 
to  the  end  of  their  last  King;  with  divers  other  Pleasant 
and  Serious  Poems;  By  a  Gentlewoman  of  New  England/ 
In  1650  this  volume  was  reprinted  in  London,  with  the  ad 
ditional  title  of  'The  Tenth  Muse,  lately  sprung  up  in 
America' ;  and  in  1678  a  second  American  edition  came 
from  the  press  of  John  Foster,  of  Boston,  'corrected  by  the 
author,  and  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  several  other  poems 
found  among  her  papers  after  her  death.'  ' 

At  the  time  of  their  publication  the  poems  received 
high  praise  in  this  country.  Nathaniel  Ward  spoke 
of  them  in  the  most  eulogistic  terms  and  Cotton 
Mather,  comparing  her  to  Hypatia,  Sorocchia,  the 
three  Corinnaes,  the  Empress  Eudocia,  Pamphila 
and  other  celebrated  women,  claims  that  a  place 
should  be  found  in  the  catalogue  of  illustrious  au 
thoresses  for  "  Madame  Ann  Bradstreet  *  *  * 
whose  poems,  divers  times  printed,  have  afforded  a 
grateful  entertainment  unto  the  ingenious,  and  a 
monument  for  her  memory  beyond  the  stateliest 
marbles."  The  Rev.  John  Norton  was  captivated 
by  her  poems  and  expressed  the  opinion  that,  if 
Virgil  could  have  heard  them,  he  would  have  been 
so  mortified  by  the  inferiority  of  his  own  that  he 
would  forthwith  have  consigned  the  latter  to  the 

1  Griswold's  Female  Poets  of  America,  17. 


EDUCATION,  BOOKS    AND    LITERATURE.  183 

flames.  We  may  not  in  this  age  allow  ourselves  to 
be  so  enthusiastic  as  the  reverend  and  gallant  divines 
who  were  her  contemporaries.  But  we  can  at  least 
accept  the  judgment  of  a  competent  modern  critic, 
Mr.  Griswold,  who  says:  "A  comparison  of  the 
productions  of  this  celebrated  person  with  those  of 
Lady  Juliana  Berners,  Elizabeth  Melvill,the  Countess 
of  Pembroke,  and  her  other  predecessors  or  contem 
poraries,  will  convince  the  judicious  critic  that  she 
was  superior  to  any  poet  of  her  sex  who  wrote  in  the 
English  language  before  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
century." 

One  other  poet  whose  poems,  though  character 
ized  by  Dr.  Ellis  as  "  doggerel,"  were  deemed 
worthy  to  be  collected  into  a  bound  volume,  was  the 
Rev.  Michael  Wigglesworth,  minister  at  Maiden 
from  1656  to  1705.  The  longest  of  his  poems,  the 
"Day  of  Doom,"  published  in  1662,  passed  through 
eight  American  editions  and  one  English.  Another, 
"Meat  out  of  the  Eater,"  published  in  1669,  went 
through  five  editions;  and  another  was  published 
after  his  death,  entitled  " God's  Controversy  with 
New  England."  The  titles  of  these  poems  suffi 
ciently  indicate  their  somber  religious  tone.1 

But  the  poetry  of  that  period  was  not  confined  to 
the  volumes  of  Mrs.  Bradstreet  and  the  Rev.  Michael 
Wigglesworth.  Ability  to  write  poetry  was  an  ac 
complishment  supposed  to  be  indispensable  to  every 
educated  gentleman,  and  nearly  all  public  men,  Mr. 
Tarbox  tells  us,  imagined  "that  they  could  turn  out 

1  See  Article  on  New  England  Poetry  of  the  Seventeenth  Century, 
by  I.  N.  Tarbox,  39  New  Englander  Magazine,  p.  174;  39  Lon.  O^art. 
Mag.,  p.  118. 


184  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

a  piece  of  poetry  on  call,  for  almost  every  occasion."1 
When  Gov.  Dudley  died,  July  31,  1653,  some  verses 
were  found  in  his  pocket,  which  Morton  says1  "may 
further  illustrate  his  character  and  give  a  taste  of  his 
poetical  fancy,  wherein  it  is  said  he  did  excel."  Then 
follow  some  verses  of  which  the  following  is  the  con 
cluding  stanza: 

"Let  men  of  God  in  Courts  and  churches  watch 
O'er  such  as  do  a  toleration  hatch; 
Lest  that  ill  egg  bring  forth  a  cockatrice 
To  poison  all  with  heresy  and  vice. 
If  men  be  left,  and  otherwise  combine; 
My  Epitaph's  I  died  no  libertine/' 

When  any  noted  public  man  died  the  poetry 
was  forthcoming.  If  a  minister,  his  clerical  breth 
ren  never  failed  to  load  down  his  memory  with  pon 
derous  elegies  couched  in  the  most  extravagant  lan 
guage.  "Let  it  be  known,"  says  the  author  of  the 
"Magnalia,"  "that  America  can  embalm  great 
persons  as  well  as  produce  them,  and  New  England 
can  bestow  an  elegy  as  well  as  an  education  upon  its 
heroes."  Many  of  these  elegies  will  be  found  scat 
tered  through  the  "Magnalia"  and  Morton's  "New 
England's  Memorial."  Often  they  were  in  the 
acrostic  style.  Excepting  the  volumes  mentioned, 
the  elegies,  the  Bay  Psalm  Book  and  the  solemn 
epitaphs  of  the  tombstone  poets,  little  poetry  of  the 
commonwealth  period  has  survived. 

During  the  period  styled  by  Mr.  Charles  Francis 
Adams  the  "theologico-glacial,"  extending,  as  he 

1  Neiv  England's  Memorial,  6th  ed.,  p.  167. 


EDUCATION,  BOOKS    AND    LITERATURE.  185 

claims,  from  the  meeting  of  the  Cambridge  Synod  in 
September,  1637,  to  tne  vear  I7^°?  there  was,  he 
says,  very  little  printed  matter  of  any  literary  value. 

"It  is  a  fact  worthy  of  note  that  the  Magnalia  stands  to-day 
the  one  single  literary  landmark  in  a  century  and  a  half  of 
colonial  and  provincial  life,  a  geological  relic  of  a  glacial 
period,  a  period  which  in  pure  letters  produced,  so  far  as 
Massachusetts  was  concerned,  absolutely  nothing  else,  not 
a  poem  nor  an  essay,  nor  a  memoir,  nor  a  work  of  fancy 
or  fiction  of  which  the  world  has  cared  to  take  note." 

He  contrasts  this  with  the  corresponding  period 
in  the  mother  country  which,  he  says,  was  there  a 
fruitful  season, 

"For  it  began  with  Milton  and  closed  with  Johnson; 
while  Clarendon  and  Burnet,  Dryden,  Pope  and  Goldsmith, 
Bunyan,  Swift,  Addison,  Steele,  and  Defoe,  Locke,  Boling- 
broke  and  Newton  were  included  in  it."1 

It  may  be  observed,  however,  in  explaining  the 
dearth  of  literature  in  Massachusetts  during  this 
time,  that  there  are  some  other  things  to  be  taken 
into  account  besides  the  chilling  atmosphere  of  the 
"theologico-glacial"  period.  It  is  reasonable  to  pre 
sume  that  men  who  were  chiefly  engaged  in  fighting 
savages  and  hewing  homes  out  of  the  wilderness,  and 
at  the  same  time  establishing  a  government,  had  not 
much  time  or  opportunity  to  write  books  and  com 
pose  poetry.  It  was  long  after  William  the  Con 
queror  set  foot  on  the  shores  of  England  until  there 
appeared  any  English  bard  or  writer  "of  whom  the 
world  has  cared  to  take  note."  Those  named  by 

I  1  Massachusetts,  Its  Historians,  etc.,  pp.  65-67. 


1  86  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

Mr.  Adams,  who  have  given  such  splendor  to  English 
literature,  came  at  a  much  later  period. 

Not  a  trace  of  what  is  now  called  "juvenile"  lit 
erature  appears  in  this  period.  Good  old  Mother 
Goose's  melodies  were  not  published  until  1719,  and 
the  children  were  limited  in  their  literary  diet  to  the 
catechism  and  Cotton's  "  Spiritual  milk  for  American 
Babes,  drawn  out  of  the  breasts  of  both  Testaments 
for  their  souls  Nourishment." 

Of  all  the  books  printed  during  the  commonwealth 
period,  the  most  celebrated  was  the  Bay  Psalm 
Book.  It  passed  through  many  editions.  The  ear 
liest  are  now  regarded  as  great  literary  curiosities 
and  command  fabulous  prices.  It  was  reprinted  in 
England  and  is  said  to  have  passed  through  seventy 
editions. 

Another  book  almost,  if  not  quite,  as  noted,  was 
the  New  England  Primer,  the  latest  edition  of  which 
was  published  by  the  Munsells,  of  Albany,  N.  Y.,  in 


"There  never  has  been  printed  in  this  country,"  say 
these  publishers,  "a  book,  laying  no  claim  to  inspiration, 
whose  influence  has  been  so  extended  and  enduring  as  that 
of  the  New  England  Primer.  For  more  than  a  century  it 
was  almost  exclusively  the  juvenile  book  of  New  England, 
and  although  it  may  not  now  be  regarded  as  wholly  unex 
ceptionable  and  adequate  to  the  wants  of  the  age,  mighty 
indeed  was  its  influence  upon  the  people  among  whom  it 
circulated  "* 

We  look  through  its  pages  now  and  smile  at  the 

1  The  first  edition  is  said  to  have  been  printed  about  1690.  20  Magazine 
Am.  His.  148. 


EDUCATION,  BOOKS  AND  LITERATURE.      187 

picture  of  Satan  with  a  forked  tail  and  at  other  comical 
illustrations.  We  smile  again  at  the  verses  telling  how 

"Young  Obadias, 
David,  Josias 
All  were  Pious. 

and  how 

"Zacheus  he 
Did  climb  the  Tree, 
Our  Lord  to  see." 

We  turn  through  the  pages  and  we  come  to  the 
child's  prayer, 

"Now  I  lay  me  down  to  take  my  sleep, 
I  pray  the  Lord  my  soul  to  keep, 
If  I  should  die  before  I  wake, 
I  pray  the  Lord  my  soul  to  take." 

The  words  of  this  simple  prayer,  handed  down 
from  generation  to  generation,  will  recall  to  many 
the  memories  of  childhood  and  the  vision  of  the 
kneeling  figure  and  sweet  face  of  one  who  taught 
them  to  repeat  the  prayer  in  years  long  gone  by; 
they  will  forget  all  about  Obadias  and  Zacheus,  and, 
whatever  they  may  think  about  the  Puritan  fathers, 
they  will  revere  the  memory  of  the  Puritan  mothers. 

Without  entering  into  a  discussion  of  the  vexed 
question  whether  an  almanac  of  any  kind  should  be 
assigned  to  the  domain  of  literature,  we  must,  nev 
ertheless,  not  neglect  to  mention  the  almanacs  of  the 
commonwealth  period.  The  first  one  printed  in  the 
colonies  was  "An  almanac,  calculated  for  New  En 
gland  by  Mr.  William  Pierce,  Mariner,"  printed  by 


1 88  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

Stephen  Daye  and  preceding  by  a  year  the  Bay 
Psalm  Book,  published  by  the  same  printer  in  1640.* 
Almanacs  were  issued  almost  every  year  after  that. 
" Many  of  these  almanacs,"  says  Mr.  Spofford,  "are 
preserved  in  private  families,  though  but  few  are  to- 
be  found  in  our  public  libraries.  It  was  an  early 
habit  in  New  England  to  preserve  the  almanacs  from 
year  to  year,  carefully  stitched  together,  and  to  an 
notate  them  frequently  with  family  records  or  cur 
rent  events." 

In  the  preface  to  "Prince's  Annals,"  the  author 
enumerates  the  authorities  which  he  consulted,  in 
cluding  "interleaved  Almanacs  of  the  late  honorable 
John  Hull  and  Judge  Sewall,  of  Boston,  Esqrs.,  of 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Shepard,  the  last  of  Charlestown,  of 
the  late  Rev.  Mr.  Joseph  Gerrish,  of  Wenham,  and 
several  others  from  1646  to  1720;  wherein  the  facts 
were  wrote  at  the  time  they  happened." 

Indeed  the  Bible,  the  Bay  Psalm  Book,  and  the  al- 
,  manac  composed  all  there  was  of  the  libraries  of 
most  of  the  early  Puritans. 

As  already  noted,  the  religious  books,  sermons 
and  tracts,  constituted  the  great  bulk  of  the  writings 
of  the  commonwealth  period.  They  were  mainly 
the  productions  of  the  ministers,  who  were  prodig 
ious  workers.  John  Cotton  was  the  author  of  many 
publications.  John  Norton  was  also  a  great  worker 
and  a  prolific  writer.  Increase  Mather  was  the  au 
thor  of  92  distinct  publications — two  of  them  being 
written  in  Latin. 

Of  these  religious  writings,  it  is  difficult  for  us  in 

1  Spofford's  Almanac  for  1878,  p.  23. 


EDUCATION,  BOOKS  AND  LITERATURE.     189 

this  age  to  form  an  accurate  judgment.  We  have 
drifted  far  away  from  the  doctrines  and  the  style  of 
the  writers.  Excepting,  perhaps,  theologians  versed 
in  the  lore  of  ancient  theology,  few  of  the  present 
generation  can  understand  these  old  books.  No 
body  of  course  can  understand  what  the  Rev.  Na 
thaniel  Ward,  author  of  "The  Simple  Cobbler  of 
Agawam,"  meant  by  such  a  sentence  as  this:  "If 
the  whole  conclave  of  Hell  can  so  compromise  exad- 
verse  and  diametrical  contradictions  as  to  compolitize 
such  a  multimonstrous  manfrey  of  heteroclites  quic- 
-quidlibets  quietly,  I  trust  I  may  say  with  all  humble 
reverence  they  can  do  more  than  the  senate  of 
Heaven."  Prof.  Tyler  admits  that  he  does  not  know 
what  this  means  and  it  is  tolerably  certain  that  no 
body  understood  it  in  Ward's  time.  But  Ward  is  an 
exception.  He  was  very  much  afflicted  with  self- 
conceit,  and  it  is  probable  that  his  eccentricity  of 
style  was  largely  cultivated  for  effect.1 

Hooker  and  Cotton  and  Norton  and  their  col 
leagues  of  the  Puritan  clergy  knew  good  English 
and  used  it.  Still  there  is  a  great  deal  in  their  writ- 

1  A  reprint  of  the  5th  edition  of  the  Simple  Cobbler  is  found  in 
Force's  Historical  Tracts,  Vol.  3.  Mr.  Whitmore  in  a  note  on  page  19 
of  Col.  Laws,  1660-1672,  says:  "  Among  the  strange  words  used  by 
Ward  I  note  pudder,  exulcerations,  colluvies,  sedulity,  jadish,  interturbe, 
corrive,  quidanye,  prestigiated,  ignotions,  mundicidious,  dedolent,  exad- 
verse,  per-peracute,  nugiperous,  nudiustertian,  futilous,  perquisquilian, 
indenominable,  precellency,  surquedryes,  prodromies,  digladiations,  pro- 
suit,  bivious,  awke;  besides  many,  almost  innumerable  oddities  of  com 
bination."  I  may  add  that  I  have  never  seen  such  an  orthographical 
jumble  except  in  a  little  book  written  by  S.  K.  Hoshour,  published  in 
1850,  and  entitled,  "Altisonant  Letters."  Evidently  the  author,  if  he 
had  ever  read  Ward's  sermons,  found  them  to  be  too  hard  for  him,  for 
in  the  vocabulary  appended  to  the  Letters  are  found  only  two  of  the 
*'  strange  words  "  mentioned  by  Mr,  Whitmore. 


190  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

ings  that  we  of  this  age  can  not  comprehend  any 
more  readily  than  we  can  comprehend  the  gibberish 
of  Ward.  Prof.  Tyler  characterizes  John  Cotton's 
writings  as  " vast  tracts  and  jungles  of  Puritanic  dis 
course — exposition,  exhortation,  logic-chopping,  the 
ological  hair-splitting,"  and  the  same  criticism  will 
apply  with  equal  force  to  the  books  and  sermons  of 
his  contemporaries. 

I  have  one  of  John  Norton's  books,  "The  Ortho 
dox  Evangelist,"  printed  in  1654,  which  has  been 
handed  down  from  generation  to  generation,  and  is 
now  preserved  as  a  curious  relic  of  the  past.  This 
was  the  most  celebrated  production  of  that  famous 
divine,  and  was  regarded  by  his  Puritan  contempora 
ries  and  successors  as  a  wonderfully  clear  and  logical 
exposition  of  the  orthodox  religious  doctrines  of  that 
period,  wherein,  as  Cotton  Mather  expressed  it,  the 
author  had  "  digested  the  subtleties  of  the  school 
men  into  solid  and  wholesome  Christianity."  In 
the  preface  the  author  says  "men  need  strong  meat  as 
well  as  Babes  need  milk;  though  he  who  is  but  a  Babe 
hath  not  the  knowledge  of  a  man,  yet  he  that  is  a  Babe 
labours  after  the  knowledg  of  a  man.  Babes  rest 
not  in  being  Babes.  I  have  endeavored  to  say  some 
thing  that  might  entertain  the  stronger,  yet  so  as  (I 
hope)  I  have  scarce  said  anything  that  weaker  capaci 
ties  may  not  with  due  attention  attain  unto."  En 
couraged  by  this,  I  have  endeavored  again  and  again, 
by  "due  attention,"  to  "attain  unto"  an  understand 
ing  of  the  book,  but  I  have  as  often  abandoned  the 
attempt  in  despair.  I  can  not  grasp  its  innumerable 
heads,  divisions  and  subdivisions  in  the  discussion  of 


EDUCATION,  BOOKS    AND    LITERATURE.  191 

the  negative,  relative  and  positive  " Attributes,"  and 
how  these  are  " distinguished  from  the  Divine  Es 
sence  and  one  from  another"*  the  "four  attributes 
of  the  beatifical  object";  the  difference  between 
eternity,  eviternity  and  time;  the  distinction  be 
tween  "  common  "  and  "  saving  or  special  grace," 
and  the  "perilous  consequences"  from  not  distin 
guishing  between  them — some  of  these  awful  conse 
quences  being  that,  without  so  distinguishing,  "Pela 
gians,  semi- Pelagians,  Arminians,  Papists  and  Or 
thodox  are  all  confounded  together." 

But,  without  making  any  more  extensive  com 
parisons,  I  take  my  own  profession,  the  law,  and 
compare  the  style  of  the  ancient  theological  writers 
with  that  of  the  legal  writers  of  the  same  period.  I 
take  "Coke  upon  Littleton,"  the  first  edition  of 
which  was  published  in  1628,  and  lay  Norton's  book 
alongside  of  that  celebrated  work  and  compare  the 
table  of  contents  of  the  one  with  that  of  the  other, 
the  theological  jargon  of  the  one  with  the  legal 
jargon  of  the  other;  Norton's  metaphysical  dis 
tinctions  and  Coke's  distinctions  between  the  kinds 
of  certainty  required  in  pleading,  viz.:  certainty 
to  a  "common  intent";  certainty  to  a  "  certaine 
intent  in  generall,"  and  certainty  to  a  "certaine 
intent  in  every  particular."  I  take  up  Kent  and 
read  what  he  says  upon  the  question  as  to  the 
time  at  which  money  provided  for  children's  por 
tions  may  be  raised  by  sale  or  mortgage  of  the  re 
versionary  term.  "The  history  of  the  question,"  he 
says,  "is  worthy  of  a  moment's  attention,  as  a  legal 
curiosity  and  a  sample  of  the  perplexity  and  uncer- 


192  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

tainty  with  which  complicated  settlements  'rolled  in 
tangles,'  and  subtle  disputations  and  eternal  doubts, 
will  insensibly  incumber  and  oppress  a  free  and  civi 
lized  system  of  jurisprudence."  And  then  I  con 
clude  that  the  theology  of  the"  1 7th  century  was  no 
harder  to  understand  than  the  law  of  the  same  period. 

This  is  no  reason,  however,  for  ridiculing  the  theo 
logians  and  the  lawyers  of  the  old  times,  or  for  accus 
ing  the  present  age  of  degeneration.  The  simple  truth 
is  that  we  have  outgrown  both  the  theology  and  the 
law  of  the  i.yth  century  and  we  are  now  unused  to 
the  ideas  and  the  language  of  both. 

It  is  quite  certain  that  the  clergy  of  the  common 
wealth  period  were  learned  men,  amongst  the  most 
learned  of  the  age.  Hutchinson  says,1  that  the  repu 
tation  of  the  New  England  clergy  "had  been  for 
some  time  very  great  in  England  and  the  opinions  of 
Mr.  Cotton,  Hooker,  Davenport  and  others  are  cited 
as  authorities  by  many  English  divines."  In  the  art 
of  reasoning  they  had  no  superiors;  their  books  and 
sermons  were  the  product  of  enormous  study  and  in 
tense  mental  effort;  and  those  who  read  and  listened 
to  them,  understood,  or  thought  they  understood, 
them,  and  received  them  with  eager  delight.  No 
books  and  no  orators  of  the  present  age  wield  such  a 
prodigious  influence  in  moulding  belief  and  shaping 
both  public  and  private  opinion  as  did  those  of  the 
commonwealth  period. 
,  '  Vol.  i,  p.  175. 


X 

RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  THEOCRACY 

FOR  fifty  years  and  more  the  Puritans  struggled  to 
establish  a  Biblical  commonwealth;  the  attempt  re 
sulted  in  a  dismal  failure,  but  the  history  of  it  is  in 
dispensable  to  a  correct  understanding  of  the  govern 
ment,  the  laws  and  the  social  life  of  the  times. 

Whatever  thoughts  may  have  been  in  the  minds 
of  the  originators  of  the  Massachusetts  company  in 
reference  to  the  acquisition  of  homes  and  fortunes, 
whatever  ideas  of  political  liberty  they  may  have 
had,  it  is  clear  that  their  cardinal  idea  was  to  secure 
for  themselves  and  their  posterity  the  right,  which 
had  been  denied  them  in  England,  to  enjoy  the  ex 
ercise  of  their  own  religious  opinions  without  let  or 
hindrance  from  kings  or  bishops. 

As  to  the  character  of  their  religion  it  is  not  nec 
essary  to  say  much  more  than  that  its  harshest  feat- 
ures  were  little,  if  any,  softer  than  were  those  of 
Scotch  Fresbyterianism  in  the  seventeenth  century  as 
described  by  Buckle.1  Indeed,  so  late  as  the  time  of 
Jonathan  Edwards,  that  eminent  divine  thundered 
orthodoxy  as  gloomy,  and  in  tones  as  fierce,  as  those 
which  characterized  the  sermons  of  Hooker,  and 
tradition  tells  us  that  in  the  sermons  which  he  was 
wont  to  preach,  depicting  the  awful  sufferings  of  sin- 

1  Hist.  Civ.  in  Eng.,  Vol.  2,  Chap.  5. 
PUR.  REP.— 13  (I93) 


THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 


ners  in  the  hands  of  an  angry  God,  he  sometimes  so 
terrified  his  hearers  that  they  clutched  their  seats  in  a 
frenzy  of  fright,  fearing  to  loosen  their  grip  lest  they 
might  slide  forthwith  down  into  hell. 

o 

The  views  of  Edwards  upon  the  future  torments 
of  the  damned  are  luridly  set  forth  in  the  following 
extract  from  his  works:1 

"The  world  will  probably  be  converted  into  a  great  lake 
or  liquid  globe  of  fire,  a  vast  ocean  of  fire,  in  which  the 
wicked  shall  be  overwhelmed,  which  will  always  be  in 
tempest,  in  which  they  shall  be  tost  to  and  fro,  having  no 
rest  day  or  night,  vast  waves  or  billows  of  fire  continually 
rolling  over  their  heads,  of  which  they  shall  forever  be  full 
of  a  quick  sense  within  and  without;  their  heads,  their  eyes, 
their  tongues,  their  hands,  their  feet,  their  loins,  and  their 
vitals  shall  forever  be  full  of  a  glowing,  melting  fire,  fierce 
enough  to  melt  the  very  rocks  and  elements  ;  and  also  they 
shall  eternally  be  full  of  the  most  quick  and  lively  sense  to 
feel  the  torments;  not  for  one  minute,  nor  for  one  day,  nor 
for  one  age,  nor  for  two  ages,  nor  for  a  hundred  ages,  nor 
for  ten  thousands  of  millions  of  ages  one  after  another,  but 
forever  and  ever,  without  any  end  at  all,  and  never,  never 
be  delivered." 

Alger,  quoting  this  extract  in  connection  with  ex 
tracts  from  other  writers  and  from  Calvin  on  infant 
damnation,  adds: 

"It  is  not  the  Father  of  Christ,  but  his  Antagonist,  whose 
face  glares  down  over  such  a  scene  as  that  !  The  above 
diabolical  passage,  at  the  recital  of  which  from  the  pulpit, 
Edwards'  s  biographers  tell  us,  'whole  congregations  shud 
dered  and  simultaneously  rose  to  their  feet,  smiting  their 
1  Vol.  8,  p.  106. 


RISE   AND    FALL   OF   THE   THEOCRACY.  195 

breasts,  weeping  and  groaning/  is  not  the  arbitrary  ex 
aggeration  of  an  individual,  but  a  fair  representation  of  the 
actual  tenets  and  vividly  held  faith  of  the  Puritans."1 

The  most  pathetic  passages  in  the  diary  of  Judge 
Sewall  are  those  which  detail  the  agony  of  his  young 
daughter  Betty,  when  the  innocent  child,  tortured  by 
the  preaching  of  John  Norton  and  Cotton  Mather 
and  the  teachings  of  her  own  father,  had  been  driven 
almost  to  the  verge  of  insanity  by  the  conviction  that 
she  was  a  "Reprobat";  that  her  "Sins  were  not  par- 
don'd";  that  she  "was  like  Spira,  not  Elected";  and 
"was  afraid  should  go  to  Hell."2 

But  the  manner  in  which  the  Theocracy  was  de 
veloped  is  worth}/  of  careful  study.  Of  course  there  was 
no  hint  of  it  in  the  charter  granted  by  King  Charles. 
Nor  was  the  Theocracy  ever  a  constituent  part  of  the 
government  itself.  Its  existence,  as  a  definite  and  dis 
tinct  body,  was  not  recognized,  either  in  the  frame  of 
government,  or  in  its  laws.  It  was  a  body  entirely 
apart,  composed  of  a  small  minority  of  the  people, 
guided  and  controlled  by  a  still  smaller  minority  of 
ministers,  who  were  largely  influenced  by  a  yet 
smaller  minority  of  their  own  number.  The  author 
ity  which  these  few  exercised  over  the  others  was  very 
great,  but  it  came  chiefly  from  sources  other  than  the 
form  of  government.  They  ruled  largely  by  the  in 
fluence  which  their  position  in  the  churches,  their 
talents,  and  their  force  of  character  gave  them. 

It  seems  incredible  in  this  age  that  these  few 
were  enabled  to  exercise  such  authority  at  the 

1  Doctrine  of  Future  Life,  p.  517. 

*  Sewall's  Papers,  Vol.  i,  pp.  419,  422,  423,  437. 


196  THE  PURITAN  REPUBLIC. 

beginning,  but  more  especially  toward  the  close,  of 
the  commonwealth,  when  at  least  five-sixths  of  the 
people  were  not  church  merribers.  How  this  author 
ity  was  acquired,  how  it  was  developed  and  enlarged, 
until  it  dominated  the  commonwealth,  will  appear  as 
we  examine  further  into  the  character  of  the_clergy 
an _d_the  character  of  the  people . 

The  ministers  who  came  over  in  the  few  years  after 
the  granting  of  the  charter  were  among  the  most 
learned  men  of  the  age  in  which  they  lived.  Hooker 
and  Cotton  came  in  1633,  Shepherd  and  Norton  and 
Richard  Mather  in  1635.  All  of  them  were  univer 
sity  graduates  and  had  achieved  distinction  in  England. 
"It  has  been  computed,"  says  Mr.  Justin  Winsor, 
"that  nearly  one  hundred  University  men  came  over 
from  England  to  cast  their  lot  in  the  new  colony  be 
tween  1630  and  1647;  and  of  these  two  thirds  came 
from  Cambridge,  particularly  from  Emmanuel  Col 
lege, — the  Puritan  seed-plot." 

Of  Cotton  it  is  said  that  he  was  not  only  familiar 
with  Greek,  but  wrote  Latin  with  ease  and  elegance 
and  could  discourse  in  Hebrew. 

Nor  were  the  learned  clergymen  confined  to  Bos 
ton  and  the  adjacent  towns.  Even  in  the  frontier 
town  of  Marlborough,  we  learn  that  the  minister 
(Mr.  Brimsmead)  was  a  very  learned  man,  who  kept 
a  journal  in  Latin,  interspersed  with  quotations  in 
Greek  and  Hebrew.2 

The  industry  of  the  ministers  was  as  marvelous  as 
was  their  learning.  This  their  published  sermons  and 
books  attest.  The  Rev.  John  Cotton,  it  is  said, 

1  The  Literature  of  the  Colonial  Period,  I  Mem.  Hist,  of  Boston,  454^ 

2  Hudson's  His,  of  Marlborough,  51. 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE    THEOCRACY.  197 

spent  twelve  hours  each  day  in  reading,  and  it  was 
his  habit  to  close  the  day  with  reading  something 
from  John  Calvin,  because,  he  said,  "I  love  to 
sweeten  my  mouth  with  a  piece  of  Calvin  before  I  go 
to  sleep."  Increase  Mather  was  accustomed  to  study 
sixteen  hours  every  day.  Some  of  the  other  minis 
ters  must  have  been  quite  as  industrious. 

They  were  men  of  fearless  disposition  and  indom- 
itablejyvill.  Hooker,  Shepherd,  Cotton  and  Norton 
had  been  excommunicated  and  forced  to  flee  for  their 
lives,  because  of  their  boldness  of  speech  and  their 
defiance  of  Laud  and  the  High  Commission.  Many 
of  the  ministers  who  came  after  them  were  compelled 
to  leave  England  for  the  same  reason. 

,'Such  men  would  be  influential  in  any  civilized 
country  in  this  or  any  other  age.  They  would  be 
still  more  influential  among  a  people  in  full  accord 
with  their  religious  views,  as  were  the  colonists  in 
Massachusetts  when  the  commonwealth  began,  most 
of  whom  had  left  England  because  they  could  not 
freely  avow  and  practice  the  religion  which  they  con 
scientiously  believed.  Naturally,  therefore,  their 
ministers  would  exercise  a  greater  influence  over 
them  than  over  men  of  different  religious  views'. 

Their  isolation  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  with 
the  Atlantic  ocean  between  them  and  their  kindred 
in  England,  served  to  draw  them  still  closer  together, 
and  to  make  them  confide  still  more  in  those  to  whom 
they  had  been  taught  from  infancy  to  apply  for  con 
solation  and  comfort. 

To  show  how  close  were  the  bonds,  and  how 
strong  was  the  affection,  between  the  ministers  and 


198  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

their  congregations,  there  is  abundant  evidence. 
When  Hooker  left  Boston  and  went  to  Hartford  he 
took  with  him  his  entire  flock.  Only  the  strongest 
personal  attachment  could  have  induced  the  members 
of  the  Scrooby  congregation  to  leave  all  and  follow 
their  minister  to  Leyden.  The  parting  of  the  Pil 
grims  and  their  loved  pastor,  John  Robinson,  dis 
closes  a  mutual  affection,  as  tender  and  as  touching 
as  it  was  pure  and  deep.  It  throws  a  mellowing  light 
upon  the  harsh  features  of  the  early  Puritans  and 
enables  us  to  comprehend  why  they  were  ready  to 
follow  their  chosen  shepherds  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
Nor  is  it  surprising  that  the  ministers  were  looked 
upon  by  their  flocks  with  a  feeling  closely  akin  to 
veneration,  and  that  when  Hooker  and  Cotton  died 
the  death  of  each  was  supposed  to  be  presaged  by 
supernatural  events  and  miraculous  visions,  indicating 
that  the  Almighty  had  thus  specially  marked  the 
event.  Seeing  how  the  influence  of  the  clergy  began, 
we  can  better  understand  its  development. 

One  of  the  first  things  done  by  the  colonists,  after 
the  charter  had  been  procured,  was  "to  make  a 
plentiful  provision  of  Godly  ministers,"  and  the  first 
of  their  vessels  conveyed  four  of  them.  Before  any 
steps  were  taken  by  the  newly  arrived  immigrants  in 
reference  to  civil  government  a  church  was  organized 
at  Salem.  The  first  thought  of  the  colonists  was  to 
make  provision  for  churches  and  ministers.  This 
was  the  first  matter  considered  at  the  first  meeting  of 
the  Court  of  Assistants  in  1630.  For  a  time  the 
ministers  were  supported  by  voluntary  contributions 
but  afterward  laws  were  passed  for  the  building  and 


RISE    AND    FALL    OF   THE    THEOCRACY.  199 

maintenance  at  the  expense  of  the  towns,  of  meeting 
houses  and  homes  for  the  ministers.1 

Another  care  of  the  colonists  was  to  see  that  none 
but  church  members  were  admitted  to  the  privileges 
of  freemen  and  a  voice  in  the  management  of  the 
affairs  of  the  colony.  Nothing  was  said  in  the  charter 
as  to  the  religious  qualifications  of  freemen,  and  the 
only  requisite  to  admission  to  the  privileges  of  such 
was  the  consent  of  those  already  constituted  freemen. 
At  the  first  General  Court  held  in  1631,  118  persons 
were  admitted,  but  at  the  same  court,  "  to  the  end 
the  body  of  the  Commons  might  be  preserved  of 
honest  and  good  men,"  it  was  ordered  that  "for  the 
time  to  come  no  man  should  be  admitted  to  the  free 
dom  of  this  body  politic  but  such  as  were  members 
of  some  of  the  churches  within  the  limits  of  the 
same."  A  law  to  the  same  effect  was  passed  in  1647. 2 
As  will  be  seen  presently,  only  " orthodox"  churches 
were  recognized.  In  1664,  in  consequence  of  com 
plaints  in  England  and  the  severe  admonition 
of  the  King,  the  law  was  nominally  repealed,  but 
the  repeal  did  not  cure  the  grievances  complained 
of,  for  the  repealing  act  itself  required,  as  one  of  the 
conditions  precedent  to  admission  of  applicants  for 
freedom,  ua  Certificate  under  the  hand  of  the  Min 
isters,  or  Minister  of  the  place  where  they  dwell, 
that  they  are  Orthodox  in  Religion,  and  not  Vicious 
in  their  Lives."3  It  is  entirely  safe  to  say  that  no 
Baptist  or  Quaker  could  have  prevailed  upon  any  or 
thodox  minister  to  give  him  such  a  certificate. 

1  Col.  Laws  1660-1672,  p.  148. 

2  Col.  Laws  1660-1672,  p.  153. 

8  Col.  Laws  1660-1672,  p.  229.] 


200  THE  PURITAN  REPUBLIC. 

1  The  colonists  were  not  satisfied  with  excluding 
from  the  privileges  of  citizenship  those  who  were 
not  "orthodox  in  religion,"  but  they  were  unwilling 
that  they  should  abide  in  the  colony.  This  was  un 
doubtedly  one  of  the  reasons  leading  to  the  enact 
ment  of  the  laws  in  reference  to  strangers.  By 
these  laws  any  strangers  "of  what  quality  soever," 
were  required  to  be  brought  by  the  master  of  the 
vessel  bringing  them,  immediately  upon  their  arrival, 
before  the  governor,  the  deputy  governor  or  two 
other  magistrates,  "there  to  give  an  account  of  their 
occasion  and  busines  in  this  Country,  whereby  satis 
faction  may  be  given,  and  order  taken,  with  such 
strangers,"  as  should  be  deemed  proper.  No  town 
or  person  was  allowed  to  entertain  any  stranger 
above  three  weeks,  "except  such  person  shall  have 
allowance  under  the  hand  of  some  one  Magistrate."1 

When  the  Baptists  became  troublesome,  laws  were 
passed  authorizing  their  banishment.  Still  severer  laws 
were  passed  in  reference  to  the  Quakers,  increasing 
in  severity  in  proportion  to  their  obstinacy.  Heavy 
penalties  were  imposed  upon  the  master  of  any  ves 
sel  bringing  them  to  the  colony,  and  against  any  per 
son  who  should  entertain  them,  and  the  Quaker 
ministers  were  subjected  to  banishment,  and  to  death 
if,  after  banishment,  they  voluntarily  returned.2 

As  might  be  supposed,  it  was  considered  of  prime 
importance  to  preserve  the  purity  of  the  orthodox 
religion  and  to  prevent  the  contamination  of  it  by  any 
heretical  dogmasT  Blasphemy,  as  already  stated, 

1  Col.  Laws  1660-1672,  p.  193. 

2  Col.  Laws,  1660-1672,  pp.  155,  156. 


RISE   AND   FALL   OF   THE   THEOCRACY.  2OI 

was  punishable  capitally  by  the  Body  of    Liberties. 
In  1646  it  was  ordered:1 

"That  if  any  Christian  within  this  Jurisdiction,  shall  go 
about  to  subvert  and  destroy  the  Christian  Faith  and  Re 
ligion,  by  broaching  and  maintaining  any  Damnable  Here 
sies:  as  denying  the  immortallity  of  the  soule,  or  resurrec 
tion  of  the  body,  or  any  sin  to  be  repented  of  in  the  regen 
erate,  or  any  evil  done  by  the  outward  man  to  be  accounted 
sin,  or  denying  that  Christ  gave  himself e  a  ransom  for  our 
sins,  or  shall  affirm  that  we  are  not  justifyed  by  his  death 
and  righteousnes,  but  by  the  perfections  of  our  own  works,  or 
shall  deny  the  morallity  of  the  Fourth  Commandement,  or 
shall  openly  Condemn  or  oppose  the  Baptizing  of  Infants, 
or  shall  purposely  depart  the  Congregation  at  the  adminis 
tration  of  that  Ordinance,  or  shall  deny  the  ordinance  of 
Magistracy,  or  their  Lawfull  Authority  to  make  war,  or  to 
punish  the  outward  breaches  of  the  first  Table,  or  shall  en 
deavour  to  seduce  others  to  any  of  the  errors  or  heresies 
above  mentioned,  every  such  person  continuing  obstinate 
therin,  after  due  meanes  of  Conviction,  shall  be  sentenced 
to  Banishment." 

Later  the  law  against  heresy  was  made  to  include 
the  denial  by  word  or  writing  of  the  inspiration  of 
any  of  the  books  of  the  old  or  the  new  testament;  and 
severe  laws  were  enacted  against  that  "cursed  sect  of 
hereticks,  lately  risen  up  in  the  world,  which  are 
called  Quakers";  their  books  were  ordered  to  be 
burned  and  the  Quakers,  themselves,  banished  and 
put  to  death  if  they  returned.  And  an  omnibus 
law  was  enacted,  providing  that  "every  person  that 
shall  publish  and  maintaine  any  Heterodox  or  errone 
ous  Doctrine,  shall  be  liable  to  be  questioned  and 
ICoi,  Laws,  1660-1672,  p,  154, 


202  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

Censured  by  the  County  Court  where  he  liveth,  ac 
cording  to  the  merit  of  his  offence."1 

As  before  stated,  the  privileges  of  freemen  were 
limited  to  church  members.  It  was  therefore  found 
necessary  to  see  that  the  churches  themselves  were 
orthodox.  The  provisions  of  the  Body  of  Liberties 
in  reference  to  churches  had  seemingly  been  very 
liberal,  those  of  liberty  No.  95,  entitled  "A  Declara 
tion  of  the  Liberties  the  Lord  Jesus  hath  given  to 
the  Churches,"  being  as  follows:2 

"All  the  people  of  god  within  this  Jurisdiction  who  are 
not  in  a  church  way,  and  be  orthodox  in  Judgement,  and 
not  scandalous  in  life,  shall  have  full  libertie  to  gather  them 
selves  into  a  Church  Estaite.  Provided  they  doe  it  in  a 
Christian  way,  with  due  observation  of  the  rules  of  Christ 
revealed  in  his  word. 

"2.  Every  Church  hath  full  libertie  to  exercise  all  the 
ordinances  of  god,  according  to  the  rules  of  scripture. 

"3.  Every  Church  hath  free  libertie  of  Election  and  or 
dination  of  all  their  officers  from  time  to  time,  provided 
they  be  able,  pious  and  orthodox. 

"4.  Every  Church  hath  free  libertie  of  Admission,  Rec 
ommendation,  Dismission,  and  expulsion,  or  deposall  of 
their  officers  and  members,  upon  due  cause,  with  free  exer 
cise  of  the  Discipline  and  Censures  of  Christ  according  to 
the  rules  of  his  word. 

"5.  No  Injunctions  are  to  be  put  upon  any  Church, 
Church  officers  or  member  in  point  of  Doctrine,  worship  or 
Discipline,  whether  for  substance  or  cercumstance  besides 
the  Institutions  of  the  lord. 

"6.    Every  Church  of  Christ  hath  freedome  to  celebrate 

1  Col.  Laws,  1660-1672,  p.  156. 

2  Col.  Laws,  1660-1672,  p.  57. 


RISE   AND   FALL   OF   THE   THEOCRACY.  203 

dayes  of  fasting  and  prayer,  and  of  thanksgiveing  accord 
ing  to  the  word  of  god. 

"7.  The  Elders  of  Churches  have  free  libertie  to  meete 
monthly,  Quarterly,  or  otherwise,  in  convenient  numbers 
and  places,  for  conferences  and  consultations  about  Chris 
tian  and  Church  questions  and  occasions. 

"8.  All  Churches  have  libertie  to  deale  with  any  of  their 
members  in  a  church  way  that  are  in  the  hand  of  Justice. 
So  it  be  not  to  retard  or  hinder  the  course  thereof. 

"9.  Every  Church  hath  libertie  to  deale  with  any  mages- 
trate,  Deputie  of  Court  or  other  officer  what  soe  ever  that 
is  a  member  in  a  church  way  in  case  of  apparent  and  just 
offence  given  in  their  places,  so  it  be  done  with  due  ob 
servance  and  respect. 

"10.  Wee  allowe  private  meetings  for  edification  in  re 
ligion  amongst  Christians  of  all  sortes  of  people.  So  it  be 
without  just  offence  for  number,  time,  place,  and  other  cer- 
cumstances." 

But  in  1658  the  foregoing  provisions  were  revised 
and  re-enacted  with  various  amendments,  the  most 
significant  being  the  following,  inserted  immediately 
after  the  first  section  quoted  above:1 

"Provided  also  that  the  Generall  Court  doth  not,  nor  will 
hereafter  approve  of  any  such  companies  of  men,  as  shall 
joyne  in  any  pretended  way  of  Church-fellowship,  unless 
they  shall  acquaint  the  Magistrates,  and  the  Elders  of  the 
neighbour  churches,  where  they  intend  to  joyne,  &  have 
their  approbation  therein. 

"2.  It  is  further  Ordered,  that  no  person  being  a  member 
of  any  church,  which  shall  be  gathered  without  the  appro 
bation  of  the  Magistrates  &  the  said  churches,  shall  be  ad 
mitted  to  the  freedom  of  this  C onion-wealth  " 

1  Col.  Laws,  1660-1672,  p.  147.     The  italics  are  mine. 


204  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

To  make  sure  that  none  but  orthodox  ministers 
should  be  chosen,  the  churches  were  not  allowed  to 
call  one  without  the  consent  of  the  neighboring 
churches  and  the  magistrates,  and,  for  violating  this 
rule,  a  heavy  fine  was  laid  on  the  church  at  Maiden.1 

Finally  it  was  ordered,  in  1679,  that  no  meeting 
house  should  be  built  without  leave  from  the  freemen 
of  the  town  or  the  General  Court.2  When  the  Bap 
tists  opened  a  meeting-house  in  Boston,  it  was 
taken  possession  of  by  the  magistrates;  the  doors 
were  nailed  up  and  a  notice3  was  posted,  forbidding 
the  holding  of  meetings  there,  and  it  is  said  that 
when  the  members  assembled  for  worship  they  were 
arrested  and  treated  very  roughly.4 

To  enforce  respect  for  religion  and  the  ministers, 
the  law  against  blasphemy  was  enlarged  in  1646, 
so  as  to  include  all  who  should  "reproach  the  holy 
Religion  of  God,  as  if  it  were  but  a  politick  device ; 
to  keep  ignorant  men  in  awe;  or  shall  utter  any 
other  kind  of  Blasphemy,  of  the  like  nature  and  de 
gree."5  It  was  also  provided  that  "every  person  or 
persons  whatsoever,  that  shall  revile  the  office  or 
person  of  Magistrates  or  Ministers,  as  is  usuall  with 
the  Quakers,  such  Person  or  Persons  shall  be  Severely 
Whipt,  or  pay  the  Summ  of  Five  Pounds."6 

A  law  enacted  in  1640  made  it  a  finable  offense  to 
"goe  about  to  destroy  or  disturb,  the  order  &  peace 

1  Hutchinson,  Vol.  i,  p.  174. 

2  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  5,  p.  213. 

8  Issued  by  order  of  the  General  Court,  signed  by  Edward  Rawson, 
Secretary,  and  dated  March  8,  1680. 

4  A  Historic  Meeting-House,  17  Magazine  Am.  His.  474. 

5  Col.  Laws,  1660-1672,  p.  128. 

6  Col.  Laws,  1660-1672,  p.  156. 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE    THEOCRACY.  205 

of  the  churches  established,  in  this  Jurisdiction,  by 
open  renouncing  their  Church  estate  or  their  Minis 
try,  or  other  Ordinances  dispensed  in  them,  either 
upon  pretense  that  the  Churches  were  not  planted  by 
any  new  Apostle,  or  that  ordinances  are  for  carnal 
Christians,  or  for  babes  in  Christ,  &  not  for  spiritual 
or  illuminated  persons,  or  upon  any  other  such  like 
groundless  conceit."1 

Another  law,  enacted  in  1646,  aimed  particularly 
at  the  Quakers,  made  it  an  offense  to  interrupt  a 
minister  in  his  preaching  or  to  charge  him  falsely 
with  any  error.  Violators  of  this  law  for  the  first 
offense  were  to  be  reproved  and  bound  over,  "And 
if  a  second  time  they  break  forth  into  the  like  con 
temptuous  carriage,  they  shall  either  pay  five  pounds 
to  the  publick  Treasury,  or  stand  two  houres  openly 
upon  a  block  or  stool,  four  foot  high,  on  a  lecture 
day,  with  a  paper  fixed  on  his  breast,  written  in  Cap 
ital  letters,  AN  OPEN  AND  OBSTINATE  CONTEMNER  OF 
GODS  HOLY  ORDINANCES,  that  others  may  hear  &  be 
ashamed  of  breaking  out  into  the  like  wickednes."2 

Attendance  upon  religious  services,  not  only  upon 
Sundays,  but  also  upon  fast  and  thanksgiving  days, 
was  required  under  penalty  of  a  fine  for  absence 
without  just  and  necessary  cause.3 

Particular  attention  was  given  to  the  observance  of 
the  Lord's  day.4 

The  godly  training  of  children  and  servants  was  not 
neglected.  In  164.2*  the  following  law  was  passed: 

1Col.  Laws,  1660-1672,  p.  148. 
2  Col.  Laws,  1660-1672,  p.  148. 
8  Col.  Laws,  1660-1672,  p.  148. 

4  See  Chap.  VIII. 

5  Col,  Laws,  1660-1672,  p.  136. 


206  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

' ' It  is  Ordered  that  the  Select  men  of  every  Town ,  in  the  sev 
eral  precincts,  and  quarters  where  they  dwel,  shal  have  a 
vigilant  eye  over  their  brethren  and  neighbours  to  see  that 
*  *  *  all  masters  of  families,  do  once  a  week  (at  the  least) 
catachise  their  children  and  servants  in  the  grounds  and  prin 
ciples  of  Religion,  &  if  any  be  unable  to  do  so  much;  that 
then  at  the  least  they  procure  such  children  and  appren 
tices,  to  learn  some  short  orthodox  catachism  without  book, 
that  they  may  be  able  to  answer  unto  the  questions,  that 
shall  be  propounded  to  them,  out  of  such  catachism  by 
their  parents  or  masters  or  any  of  the  Select  men,  when 
they  shall  call  them  to  a  try  all,  of  what  they  have  learned 
in  this  kind/' 

Later1  it  was  provided  that: 

"Forasmuch  as  it  greatly  Concernes  the  welfare  of  the 
Country  that  the  youth  thereof  be  educated  not  only  in  good 
Literature,  but  in  sound  Doctrine.  This  Court  doth  There 
fore  Commend  it  to  the  serious  Consideration,  &  special  care 
of  our  Overseers  of  the  Colledg,  &  the  Select  men  in  the  sev 
eral  townes,  not  to  admit  or  suffer  any  such  to  be  continued 
in  the  Office  or  place  of  teaching,  educating  or  instructing 
youth  or  children,  in  the  Colledg  or  Schools,  that  have 
manifested  theselves  unsound  in  the  faith,  or  scandalous  in 
their  lives  &  have  not  given  satisfaction  according  to  the 
Rules  of  Christ." 

There  was  scarcely  anything  which  the  Theocracy 
did  not  pry  into  and  attempt  to  regulate  by  law.  It 
attempted  to  control  men's  thoughts  as  well  as  their 
actions.  "It  is  evident,"  says  Hutchinson,2  "not 
only  by  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  trial,  but  by  many  other 

1Col.  Laws,  1660-16*2.  p.  191. 
•Vol.  i,  p.  75- 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE    THEOCRACY.  2O/ 

public  proceedings,  that  inquisition  was  made  into 
men's  private  judgments  as  well  as  into  their  declara 
tions  and  practice." 

It  would  be  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  minis 
ters  in  a  community  having  such  laws  as  have  been 
mentioned  would  possess  great  power  and  influence, 
not  only  in  social  life,  but  in  the  affairs  of  govern 
ment.  And  such  was  the  fact. 

It  will  be  observed  also  that,  under  the  peculiar 
system  of  the  early  colonial  government,  the  men 
who  composed  the  congregation  in  the  town  church 
were  the  identical  men  who  voted  at  the  town  meet 


ings. 


Another  fact  must  be  borne  in  mind.  As  we  have 
seen,  no  one  could  be  admitted  a  freeman,  and  be 
entitled  to  vote  and  exercise  the  privileges  of  citizen 
ship,  until  he  had  been  admitted  a  member  of  some 
orthodox  church.  But  that  was  not  always  an  easy 
matter.  The  minister  would,  of  course,  have  great 
influence  in  determining  the  application  for  member 
ship.  Indeed,  while  he  could  not  admit  any  one 
against  the  will  of  the  congregation,  neither  could 
the  congregation  admit  any  one  over  his  objection, 
however  arbitrary  it  might  be. 

That  the  influence  of  the  clergy  was  enormous 
there  can  be  no  doubt.  Prof.  Tyler  speaks  of  Hooker 
as  "priest  and  king"  of  the  Connecticut  colony,  and 
of  John  Cotton  as  "the  unmitred  pope  of  a  pope- 
hating  commonwealth." 4  *The  influence  of  John 
Norton,  for  a  long  period,  was  almost  supreme,  and 
"for  nearly  sixty  years,"  according  to  Mr.  Justin 


208  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

Winsor,   " Increase    Mather  well-nigh    ruled  in  the 
Boston,  if  not  in  the  New  England,  Theocracy." 

The  power  of  the  clergy  was  plainly  manifest  in 
the  proceedings  of  the  General  Court.  No  man  sat 
there  who  was  obnoxious  to  them,  and  it  was  seldom 
that  any  measure  was  carried  over  their  objection. 
On  all  important  questions  their  advice  and  counsel 
were  sought,  and  in  all  affairs,  civil  and  domestic,  as 
well  as  ecclesiastical,  the  advice  of  the  clergy  was 
almost  equivalent  to  a  command. 

In  1631  the  citizens  of  Boston  chose  seven  men  to 
divide  the  town  lands  among  them,  but  they  chose 
only  one  elder  and  one  deacon,  "  and  the  rest  of  the 
inferior  sort,"  which  they  did  "as  fearing  that  the 
richer  men  would  give  the  poorer  sort  no  great  pro 
portion  of  land."  But  this  was  thought  to  be  set 
ting  a  bad  precedent,  " whereupon  at  the  motion  of 
Mr.  Cotton,  who  showed  them  that  it  was  the  Lord's 
order  among  the  Israelites  to  have  all  such  business 
committed  to  the  elders,  *  *  *  they  all  agreed 
to  go  to  a  new  election." 

In  one  of  his  sermons,  preached  in  1637,  ex~ 
pounding  a  passage  in  2  Chron.  and  Numbers  27,  21, 
Cotton  said,  "that  the  rulers  of  the  people  should  con 
sult  with  the  ministers  of  the  churches  upon  occasion 
of  any  war  to  be  undertaken,  and  any  other  weighty 
business,  though  the  case  should  seem  never  so  clear, 
as  David  in  the  case  of  Ziglag,  and  the  Israelites  in 
the  case  of  Gibeah.  Judges,  etc."1 

Still  another  fact  should  be  borne  in  mind,  in  esti 
mating  the  influence  of  the  clergy  in  the  colonial 

1  Winthrop,  Vol.  i,  p.  237. 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE   THEOCRACY.  209 

government,  which  has  been  referred  to  in  a  former 
chapter,  viz.,  the  absence  of  the  conservative  influ 
ence  of  lawyers. 

It  must  be  obvious,  from  what  has  been  said,  that 
the  connection  between  church  and  state  was  very  in 
timate.  It  is  doubtful  if  the  connection  was  ever 
more  intimate  since  the  days  of  Moses.  Nor  were 
the  clergy  ever  more  influential  in  any  government. 
Their  control  was  well-nigh  supreme  over  the  legis 
lature,  the  courts  and  the  people.  The  natural  re 
sult  was  to  create  an  established  church,  not  in  name, 
but  in  fact.  The  Puritan  orthodox  church  was  as 
much  an  established  church  as  the  established  church 
of  England. 

Another  result  was  a  rapidly  developing  tendency 
to  religious  tyranny  and  persecution.  An  eminent 
historian  says  that  there  is  no  instance  in  history  of 
unlimited  power  which  has  not  been  abused.  This 
is  true,  whether  the  power  be  lodged  in  kings,  legis 
latures,  judges,  or  ecclesiastics. 

The  history  of  England  and  France,  as  well  as 
that  of  Massachusetts,  shows  that  no  ecclesiastics  of 
any  denomination  are  exceptions  to  the  rule.  Indeed, 
the  combination  of  politician  and  preacher  is  gener 
ally  a  very  bad  one.  It  is  bad  if  the  preacher  is  a 
hypocrite  and  "steals  the  livery  of  Heaven  to  serve 
the  Devil  in,"  and  bad  if  he  is  a  conscientious  re 
ligious  fanatic,  for,  of  all  fanatics,  the  conscientious 
religious  one  is  the  most  dangerous  to  his  fellow-men. 

The  power  of  the  clergy  was,  of  course,  fully  re 
cognized  by  the  civil  rulers,  and  "whenever,"  says 

PUR.  REP. — 14 


210  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

Mr.  Savage,1  "any  course,  that  might  proceed  to  a 
result  of  extreme  injustice,  cruelty,  or  tyranny,  was 
contemplated  by  the  civil  rulers,  the  sanction  of  the 
churches  or  of  the  elders  was  usually  solicited,  and 
too  often  obtained." 

Enough  has  been  said  to  show  the  influence  of  the 
church  and  of  the  ministers  in  the  government,  and 
of  the  tendency  of  that  influence,  to  make  it  clear 
how  a  small  minority  was  able  so  long  to  hold  the 
reins  of  power  in  the  commonwealth,  in  opposition 
to  the  majority.  This  is  an  important  consideration 
when  we  seek  to  determine  responsibility  for  the  relig 
ious  persecutions  of  Baptists  and  Quakers.  We  have 
only  to  compare  the  Body  of  Liberties,  adopted  in 
1643,  with  the  Revision  of  1660,  to  see  how  rapid  was 
the  progress  in  the  commonwealth  toward  religious 
despotism. 

The  advance  of  the  Theocracy  toward  the  assump 
tion  of  arbitrary  power  was  not  unopposed.  On  the 
contrary,  its  progress  was  marked  by  great  dissen 
sions  and  violent  opposition  and  was  tinged  with 
blood.  The  darkest  pages  in  the  history  of  the  com 
monwealth  are  those  which  record  the  persecutions 
of  persons  whose  religious  views  did  not  accord  with 
those  of  the  party  in  power.  Very  early,  in  1629, 
the  Brownes  had  insisted  on  using  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  and  conforming  to  the  forms  and 
ceremonies  of  the  Church  of  England,  whereupon 
Governor  Endicott  told  them  that  "New  England 
was  no  place  for  such  as  they,"  and  sent  them  back 
to  England. 

1  Winthrop,  Vol.  i,  342  note. 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE    THEOCRACY.  211 

The  first  resolutely  to  oppose  the  pretensions  of  the 
Theocracy  was  Roger  Williams,  the  new  minister  at 
Salem.  He,  too,  like  many  other  ministers,  had  been 
driven  from  England  to  escape  the  persecutions  of 
Laud.  John Quincy Adams  describes  him  as  "the  very 
impersonation  of  this  combined  conscientious,  conten 
tious  spirit."1  He  presented  in  his  character  the  singu 
lar  combination  of  a  frank  and  amiable  nature  with 
an  uncontrollable  appetite  for  disputation.  He  went 
through  life  dissenting  from  everything  regarded  by 
his  fellow-men  as  established  in  government  or  in  re 
ligion. 

When  the  members  of  his  own  church  refused  to  fol 
low  his  advice  to  withdraw  themselves  from  the  other 
"unregenerate"  churches  in  Massachusetts,  he  ex 
communicated  them  by  withdrawing  himself  from  fel 
lowship  with  them,  opened  meetings  in  his  own  house, 
and  quarreled  with  his  wife  for  persisting  in  continuing 
to  worship  in  the  church  which  he  had  just  left.  At 
last,  toward  the  close  of  his  life,  he  dissented  from 
himself,  and  denounced  as  unsound  the  views  of  bap 
tism  which  he  himself  had  formerly  advocated. 

He  came  to  this  country  in  1631,  and  was  called 
to  the  church  in  Salem,  but  it  was  not  long  until  he 
began  to  advocate  opinions  which  raised  a  great 
ferment  and  aroused  violent  opposition,  and  which, 
at  the  General  Court  in  1635,  "were  adjudged  by 
all  magistrates  and  ministers  (who  were  desired  to 

1  Address  to  Mass.  His.  Soc.,  Mass.  His.  Coll.,  3d  Ser.,  Vol.  9,  p.  206. 
In  this  address  Mr.  Adams  gives  a  very  clear  and  strong  presentation  of 
the  side  of  Massachusetts  in  the  controversy  with  Williams  which  led 
to  his  banishment. 


212  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

be  present)  to  be  erroneous  and  very  dangerous. " 
He  insisted  that  all  those  who  had  ever  partaken 
communion  with  the  Church  of  England  should  make 
public  repentance  for  having  committed  so  great  a  sin. 
But  his  political  opinions  were  still  more  shocking  to 
the  whole  community.  He  contended  that  the  colo 
nists  had  been  guilty  of  a  great  wickedness  in  accepting 
from  the  king  their  charter,  and  that  they  ought  forth 
with  to  surrender  it;  that  it  gave  them  no  title  to  the 
lands  which  they  occupied  because,  as  he  claimed,  the 
king  had  no  right  to  give  to  his  subjects  what  belonged 
to  the  native  Indians;  that  the  magistrates  had  no  right 
to  punish  violations  of  the  Sabbath  or  any  other 
violations  of  the  first  table;  and  that  they  had  no 
right  to  administer  an  oath  to  an  "unregenerate 
man,"  not  even  the  oath  of  fidelity.1  The  author  of 
the  "Magnalia"  assures  us  that  the  whole  country 
was  "like  to  be  set  on  fire  by  the  rapid  motion  of  a 
wind-mill  in  the  head  of  one  particular  man." 

Undoubtedly  for  the  expression  of  such  opinions  in 
England,  if  he  had  remained  there,  he  would  have  been 
hanged  or  burned  at  the  stake.  The  colonists  banished 
him,  and,  while  we  may  condemn  them  for  doing 
even  this,  all  can  rejoice  that  they  inflicted  no  severer 
punishment. 

For  some  years  after  his  banishment  he  and  the 
Rev.  John  Cotton  bombarded  each  other  at  long 
range  with  books  and  tracts,  bearing  the  gory  titles 
of  the  "Bloody  Tenent  of  Persecution,"  the  "Bloody 
Tenent  washed  and  made  white  in  the  Blood  of  the 
Lamb,"  and  "the  Bloody  Tenent  yet  more  Bloody." 

1  Hubbard   His.  Neiv  England,   Mass.    His.  Coll.,  2d  Ser.,  Vol.  5,  p. 
206;  Neiv  England's  Memorial,  6th  ed.,  p.  103. 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE   THEOCRACY.  213 

In  later  years  he  himself  became  shocked  at  the  con 
temptuous  conduct  of  the  Quakers  and  hurled  a  book 
at  George  Fox  entitled,  " George  Fox  digged  out  of 
his  Burrowes,"  and  declared  that  "a  due  and  moder 
ate  restraint  and  punishing"  of  their  incivilities, 
" though  pretending  conscience,  is  so  far  from  perse 
cution,  properly  so  called,  that  it  is  a  duty  and  com 
mand  of  God  unto  all  mankind." 

Further  evidence  that  Williams's  opinions  of  polit 
ical  and  religious  toleration  underwent  some  decided 
changes  after  his  banishment  from  Massachusetts  is 
afforded  by  his  treatment  of  William  Harris,  who 
went  with  him  from  Salem  and  for  a  long  time 
was  his  intimate  friend.  Afterwards  there  grew 
up  a  bitter  feud  between  them,  and  Williams  caused 
Harris's  arrest  for  high  treason,  on  account  of  utter 
ances  no  more  subversive  of  good  government  than 
those  for  which  Williams  himself  had  been  banished 
from  Massachusetts.1  Nevertheless,  there  are  in  the 
life  of  Williams  some  incidents  that  strikingly  illus 
trate  his  kindness  of  heart  and  the  absence  of  the 
feeling  of  resentment  which,  after  such  treatment  as 
he  had  received  from  the  magistrates  of  Massachu 
setts,  would  long  have  rankled  in  the  minds  of  most 
men.  They  are  creditable  to  Winthrop  also,  but  as 
much  can  not  be  said  of  his  Massachusetts  associates. 
Whatever  may  have  been  the  feelings  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  authorities  toward  Williams  after  his  ban 
ishment,  it  is  certain  that,  to  the  end  of  his  life, 
while  denouncing  their  religious  intolerance,  he  en 
tertained  the  most  sincere  affection  for  the  people  of 

1  Palfrey,  Vol.  2,  p.  365;  Doyle's  English  Colonies  in  America,  Vol. 
I,  p.  318. 


214  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

the  Massachusetts  commonwealth.  He  and  Win- 
throp  continued  to  correspond  with  each  other,  and 
each  seems  to  have  held  the  other  in  affectionate  re 
membrance.  It  was  the  intention  of  the  Massachu 
setts  authorities  to  send  Williams  back  to  England, 
but  hearing  of  the  plan  he  escaped  and  started  upon 
his  perilous  and  memorable  journey  through  the 
wilderness.  After  his  departure  Winthrop  wrote 
advising  him  to  "  steer  his  course"  to  the  Narra- 
gansett  Bay,  because  of  the  "freeness  of  the  place 
from  any  English  claims  or  pattents,"  and  thither  he 
went.  Afterwards  Williams  repeatedly,  and  some 
times  at  the  risk  of  his  life,  interposed  his  mediation 
to  reconcile  the  differences  between  the  people  of  the 
commonwealth  and  their  Indian  foes,  and  to  advise 
the  authorities  of  the  former  of  the  latter's  hostile 
plots. 

In  1676,  when  Williams  was  seventy-seven  and  his 
house  had  been  burned,  and  he  had  been  "in  his  old 
age  reduced  to  an  uncomfortable  and  disabled  state," 
the  Council  of  Massachusetts  "out  of  compassion  to 
him  in  this  condition"  passed  an  order  "that  if  the 
sayd  Mr.  Williams  shall  see  cause  and  desire  it,  he  shall 
have  liberty  to  repayre  into  any  of  our  Towns  for 
his  security  and  comfortable  abode  during  these 
Public  Troubles,  he  behaving  himself  peaceably  and 
inoffensively,  and  not  disseminating  and  venting 
any  of  his  different  opinions  in  matters  of  religion 
to  the  dissatisfaction  of  any." 

This  was  very  scant  and  very  tardy  justice  to 
one  who  had  done  so  much  as  Williams  for  the 
commonwealth  in  its  times  of  trouble.  If  the  author- 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE    THEOCRACY.  215 

ities  in  Massachusetts  had  acted  more  liberally  and 
more  speedily  they  might  have  gained  a  little  more 
credit,  where  they  needed  so  much,  for  toleration. 

The  next  serious  trouble  was  what  is  known  as 
the  Antinomian  controversy.  This  began  about  1636, 
and  was  chiefly  stirred  up  by  Mrs.  Ann  Hutchinson 
and  her  brother-in-law,  John  Wheelwright,  one  of  the 
ministers  in  the  new  colony.  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  a 
woman  distinguished  for  her  intelligence  and  sprightly 
wit,  had  heard  the  Rev.  John  Cotton  in  England  and 
came  to  this  country  chiefly  that  she  might  again  be 
fed  by  his  discourses.  She  had  very  decided  and 
original  religious  views  of  her  own,  which  she  did 
not  hesitate  to  express,  and  which  did  not  correspond 
exactly  with  those  which  were  accepted  by  the  major 
ity  of  the  colony  ministers  as  orthodox.  She  a.kn 
professed  to  have  received  divine  revelations.  She 
soon  began  to  hold  meetings  at  her  house,  at  which  the 
sermons  of  the  ministers  were  discussed  and  criticised. 
"It  was  not  long,"  Cotton  Mather  tells  us,  "before 
'twas  found  that  most  of  the  errors,  then  crawling 
like  vipers,  about  the  countrey,  were  hatched  at  these 
meetings,"  held  at  the  house  of  this  "virago."  Of 
the  new  doctrines  taught  by  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  one 
was  that  most  of  the  Boston  ministers  (Mr.  Cotton 
excepted)  were  under  a  "covenant  of  works,"  and 
not  under  a  "covenant  of  grace";  also  that  they  were 
not  "sealed";  and  another,  more  intelligible  and 
more  exasperating  to  them,  was  that  "they  were  not 
abel  ministers."1 

Oliver  states  that  "her  disciples  now  denied,  among 

1  Some   of  her  "damnable  doctrines"  are  enumerated  in   the   Mag- 
nalia,  Vol.  2,  pp.  516,  517. 


2l6  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

other  truths  the  obligation  of  the  moral  law,  the  im 
mortality  of  the  soul,  and  the  resurrection  of  the  dead; 
and  a  divine  revelation  had  assured  her  of  the  destruc 
tion  of  the  Puritan  commonwealth."1  But  Mrs. 
Hutchinson,  herself,  did  not  advocate  all  these  here 
sies;  at  least  she  was  not  so  charged  in  her  subsequent 
trial. 

Her  brother-in-law,  Wheelwright,  speedily  be 
came  a  convert  to  her  views.  John  Cotton,  if  not 
won  over  by  her  teachings,  evidently  was  deeply  im 
pressed  by  them.  Sir  Henry  Vane  was  then  governor. 
It  is  not  certain  how  fully  he  understood  or  cared  for 
the  differences  between  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  Wheel 
wright  and  the  other  ministers,  or  whether  he  sided 
with  the  Hutchinson  and  Wheelwright  faction  for 
religious  or  for  political  reasons.  Oliver  insinuates 
that  he  "embarked  in  the  contention  more  to  secure 
the  leadership  of  a  party  than  for  any  real  interest  he 
felt  in  the  struggle,"  but  it  is  more  probable,  consid 
ering  Vane's  visionary  temperament,  that  he  was 
fascinated  by  the  subtle  novelty  of  the  views  of  the 
remarkable  woman  who  came  so  near  captivating  the 
entire  Massachusetts  commonwealth.  At  any  rate, 
Vane  became  one  of  her  most  enthusiastic  sup 
porters. 

Shortly  before  the  expiration  of  his  term  of  office 
as  governor,  Vane  declared  that  his  private  affairs  re 
quired  him  to  abandon  the  office  and  return  to  Eng 
land,  and  he  requested  permission  to  do  so  from  the 
General  Court.  At  the  same  time  he  gave  a  dramatic 
exhibition  of  his  grief  by  bursting  into  tears  when 

1  Puritan  Common-wealth,^.  178. 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE   THEOCRACY. 

speaking  of  the  cruel  necessity  which  compelled  him 
to  leave  the  country  in  its  then  distracted  condition, 
which  was  owing  largely,  he  thought,  to  the  "scan 
dalous  imputation  brought  upon  himself,  as  if  he 
should  be  the  cause  of  all."  If,  as  Hutchinson  in 
timates,  Vane  was  guilty  of  dissimulation  in  this  the 
atrical  display,  it  did  not  have  the  desired  effect  upon 
the  level-headed,  practical  and  unimaginative  Puri 
tans  of  the  Massachusetts  commonwealth,  for  they 
refused  to  accept  his  resignation  and  did  not  carry  out 
the  supposed  Caesar  programme  by  offering  him  the 
crown  a  second  time.  It  is  certainly  true  that  Vane, 
notwithstanding  his  professed  desire  to  resign,  was 
entirely  willing  to  remain  and  continue  in  the  office 
of  governor,  else  he  would  not  have  permitted  his 
name  to  go  before  the  people  again  as  a  candidate 
for  that  place. 

Many  others,  especially  in  Boston,  became  con 
verts  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  Wheelwright,  and  a 
great  commotion  resulted.  The  people  of  Boston  di 
vided  and  the  ministers  divided,  and  the  division 
threatened  to  extend  throughout  the  commonwealth. 

To  make  matters  worse,  Wheelwright  preached  a 
sermon,  which,  whether  correctly  interpreted  or  not, 
was  construed  as  a  violent  attack  upon  his  brother 
ministers  and  gave  them  great  offense.  He  was  there 
fore  summoned  to  appear  before  the  General  Court 
to  answer  for  his  heretical  teachings,  and  was  ad 
judged  to  be  guilty  of  sedition,  but  no  sentence  was 
then  pronounced. 

Thereupon  a  petition  was  presented  to  the  General 
Court,  signed  by  many  prominent  citizens  of  Boston 


2l8  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

and  by  some  of  the  neighboring  towns,  remonstrating 
against  the  proceedings  in  Wheelwright's  case.  The 
remonstrance,  even  according  to  the  version  of  it 
given  by  Welde,  one  of  the  most  bitter  of  Wheel 
wright's  accusers,  seems  to  have  been  temperate  in 
its  tone  and  contained  nothing  to  warrant  the  sub 
sequent  proceedings  against  those  who  signed  it.1  No 
attention  was  paid  to  the  remonstrance  at  the  time 
when  it  was  presented. 

Here  matters  rested  for  a  time.  A  general  elec 
tion  was  coming  on.  The  candidate  for  governor  of 
the  majority  of  the  ministers  was  Winthrop,  while 
Vane  was  the  candidate  of  the  Hutchinson  and 
Wheelwright  party.  Boston  had  become  so  deeply 
infected  with  heterodox  notions  that  it  was  deemed 
unsafe  by  the  Winthrop  party  to  hold  the  election 
there,  and  a  motion  was  made  in  the  General  Court 
to  hold  the  election  at  Cambridge.  Vane  refused  to 
put  the  motion,  whereupon  it  was  promptly  put  by 
Endicott  and  carried.  Vane  also  attempted  to  pre 
sent  the  petition  in  favor  of  Wheelwright,  but  the 
General  Court  refused  to  hear  it  until  after  the  elec 
tion.  Election  day  was  one  of  great  and  unusual 
excitement.  " There  was,"  says  Winthrop,  " great 
danger  of  a  tumult  that  day;  for  those  of  that  side 
[Wheelwright's]  grew  into  fierce  speeches,  and 
some  laid  hands  on  others;  but  seeing  themselves  too 
weak,  they  grew  quiet."2  Wilson,  one  of  the  min- 

1  The  copy  preserved  by  Welde  entitled  "Remonstrance  or  Petition 
by  Members  of  Boston  Church,  in  favor  of  Wheelwright,  March,    1637. 
Copied  from  the  Book  of  their  Antagonist,  Thomas  Welde,  pp.  23-5," 
is  given  in  Savage's  edition  of  Winthrop,  Vol.   I,  p.  481.     See  Doyle's 
English  Colonies  in  America,  Vol.  I,  p.  131. 

2  Vol.  I,p,  220, 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE   THEOCRACY.  219 

isters,  mounted  a  tree  and  harangued  the  freemen  in 
favor  of  Winthrop,  making,  it  is  said,  the  first 
"stump  speech"  ever  made  in  America. 

The  day  was  carried,  however,  not  by  the  oratory 
of  Wilson,  but  by  the  great  name  of  Winthrop.  The 
country  towns  remained  loyal  to  him  and  to  the  or 
thodox  ministers,  and  when  the  votes  were  counted 
it  was  found  that  Winthrop  had  been  elected  and 
that  Vane  and  all  of  his  party  had  been  left  out  of 
office.  Vane  himself  soon  after  left  America  never 
to  return. 

The  character  of  this  celebrated  man,  prominent 
alike  in  the  Massachusetts  commonwealth  and  in 
England  in  the  most  stormy  political  periods  in  both 
countries,  justifies  more  than  a  mere  passing  notice. 
Vane,  indeed,  furnishes  a  striking  illustration  of 
the  difficulty  of  reaching  an  accurate  conclusion  con 
cerning  the  character  of  any  man  prominent  in  the 
political  affairs  of  his  age.  Accordingly  as  the  writer 
leans  to  or  against  republicanism  in  politics  and 
Puritanism  in  religion,  his  views  are  favorable  or  un 
favorable  to  Vane.  The  great  diversity  of  opinion 
respecting  Vane  appears  in  the  extracts  from  other 
writers  given  us  by  Mr.  Charles  Wentworth  Upham, 
his  American  biographer,1  and  by  Dr.  Ellis  in  "The 
Puritan  Age." 

That  Vane  was  a  man  of  great  intellectual  power 
and  executive  ability  there  can  be  no  doubt.  It  seems 
to  be  equally  clear  that  he  was  of  that  peculiar  tem 
perament  which  made  him  a  visionary  in  religious 
belief  and  an  impracticable  enthusiast  in  politics. 

1  Life  of  Sir  Henry  Vane,  Vol.  4,  Sparks's  American  Biography. 


22O  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

But  there  is  a  wide  and  irreconcilable  difference  of 
opinion  touching  his  character  as  a  man.  Milton  has 
immortalized  him  in  verse,  and  Upham  has  portrayed 
him  in  the  most  favorable  light.  Mr.  Fiske,  also,1 
eulogizes  him  in  terms  of  highest  praise.  An  al 
together  different  impression  is  conveyed  by  Hutchin- 
son,  who,  as  before  stated,  intimates  that  he  was 
guilty  of  dissimulation  in  the  weeping  episode 
which  characterized  his  attempted  resignation  as  gov 
ernor,  and  by  Hume,  who  strongly  intimates  that,  if 
both  Vane  and  his  father  were  not  implicated  in  a 
deliberate  and  disreputable  plot  to  procure  the  con 
viction  of  the  Earl  of  Strafford,  the  conduct  of  the  son 
on  that  occasion  was  such  as  to  justify  a  grave  sus 
picion  at  least  with  respect  to  his  honor. 

There  is  also  a  wide  diversity  of  opinion  as  to 
Vane's  writings.  Mackintosh  is  reported  to  have 
said  that  they  displayed  " astonishing  powers." 
Hume,  on  the  other  hand,  characterizes  them  as 
" wholly  unintelligible,"  and  classes  him  among  men 
of  the  greatest  genius  who  " where  they  relinquish 
by  principle  the  use  of  their  reason,  are  only  ena 
bled,  by  their  vigor  of  mind,  to  work  themselves  the 
deeper  into  error  and  absurdity." 

That  which  Vane's  most  enthusiastic  admirers  find 
the  hardest  to  explain  or  excuse,  is  the  part  which 
he  took,  after  his  return  to  England,  in  the  impeach 
ment  trial  of  the  Earl  of  Strafford.  The  latter's 
conviction  was  based  chiefly  upon  a  copy,  furnished 
by  Vane  to  Pym,  who  conducted  the  impeachment 
proceedings,  of  some  notes  taken  by  his  father  (Sir 

1  Beginnings  of  New  England,  pp.  116-117. 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF    THE    THEOCRACY.  221 

Henry  Vane,  the  elder),  when  secretary  of  the 
Privy  Council,  of  alleged  remarks  made  by  Straff ord 
in  relation  to  the  subjugation  of  Scotland.  Among 
honorable  men,  independently  of  any  law  on  the 
subject,  the  advice  given  by  a  lawyer  to  his  client  is 
regarded  as  a  privileged  communication  of  the  highest 
character.  Much  more  so  should  be  the  advice  given 
by  a  privy  councilor  to  his  sovereign.  But  the  law 
added  an  express  obligation  of  secrecy  by  requiring 
that  every  councilor,  before  taking  his  seat,  should 
make  oath  that  he  would  "keep  secret  all  matters 
committed  and  revealed"  to  him  in  the  council.  If 
the  disclosure  of  the  notes  taken  by  Vane's  father 
was  procured  by  any  collusion  between  them,  it 
exposed  both  to  the  charge  of  basest  perfidy.  Un 
fortunately  for  the  fame  of  Vane  there  was  enough 
to  raise  at  least  a  strong  suspicion  that  there  was  such 
collusion  in  the  extraordinary  story  told  by  him  and  his 
father  explaining  the  manner  in  which  the  son  got 
possession  of  the  notes,  and  why  he  gave  a  copy 
of  them  to  Pym. 

The  story  told  by  Vane,  the  son,  at  the  impeach 
ment  trial,  was  that  the  father,  being  in  the  north  of 
England,  sent  the  keys  to  the  boxes  containing  his  pri 
vate  papers  to  his  son,  in  order  that  the  latter  might 
make  search  for  a  paper  necessary  to  the  making  of 
a  settlement  upon  his  wife.  After  having  found  the 
papers  for  which  he  was  directed  to  make  search,  he 
was  prompted,  by  mere  curiosity,  to  see  what  was  in 
a  red  velvet  cabinet,  wherein  he  found  the  notes 
taken  by  his  father  of  Strafford's  remarks  in  the 
Privy  Council.  These  made  such  a  profound  impres- 


222  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

sion  on  him  that  he  felt  bound  in  conscience  to 
show  them  to  Pym,  and  "being  confirmed  by  him 
that  the  seasonable  discovery  thereof  might  do  no  less 
than  preserve  the  kingdom,  consented  that  he  should 
take  a  copy  thereof;  which  to  my  knowledge  he  did 
faithfully;  and  thereupon  I  laid  the  original  in  the 
proper  place  again,  in  the  red  velvet  cabinet."  His 
father  was  present  when  this  remarkable  story  was 
told  by  his  son  and  he  declared  that  this  was  the  first 
knowledge  he  had  of  the  manner  in  which  the  con 
tents  of  his  notes  had  been  disclosed,  and  he  pro 
fessed  to  be  deeply  mortified  and  offended  by  the 
conduct  of  his  son.  What  gave  further  strength  to 
the  suspicion  that  the  marvelous  story  of  the  discovery 
by  the  son  of  the  father's  notes  was  part  of  a  con 
cocted  plot  between  them,  was  the  fact  that  the  father 
was  a  bitter  enemy  of  Straff ord,  and  the  further  fact 
that  the  father's  notes  were  not  corroborated  by  the 
testimony  of  any  of  the  councilors  who  were  present 
when  the  alleged  remarks  of  Strafford  were  said  to 
have  been  made,  four  of  whom,  besides  the  elder 
Vane,  testified  at  the  trial. 

No  one  can  read  the  account  of  this  transaction 
as  given  by  Hume1  without  a  strong  impression  that 
the  conduct  of  Vane,  if  not  perfidious,  was  at  least  very 
reprehensible.  The  account  given  by  Upham,  though 
the  professed  admirer  and  eulogist  of  Vane,  does  not 
remove  this  impression  in  the  mind  of  one  who  can 
didly  and  impartially  weighs  the  evidence.  The  char 
acter  of  Strafford,  himself,  bad  as  it  was,  and  deserv 
ing  as  he  may  have  been  of  his  fate,  has  no  bearing 

1  His.  England,  Vol.  5,  Chap.  54. 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE    THEOCRACY.  223 

in  determining  the  morality  or  the  propriety  of  the 
conduct  of  Vane. 

This  much,  however,  should  be  said  in  favor  of 
Vane:  that  when  he  himself  was  led  to  the  scaffold, 
the  last  victim  to  suffer  death  under  the  reign  of 
Charles  II  for  alleged  political  crimes  committed  in 
the  preceding  reign,  he  met  death  with  manly  forti 
tude  and  heroic  courage,  and  that,  to  the  end  of  his 
life,  he  was  the  friend  of  the  Massachusetts  colonists. 

The  Theocracy  was  now  in  full  control,  and  the 
charges  against  Wheelwright  were  speedily  pressed 
to  a  conclusion,  resulting  in  his  banishment. 

Attention  was  next  turned  to  the  arch-mischief- 
maker,  Mrs.  Hutchinson.  From  the  brief  account  by 
Winthrop  we  do  not  get  a  very  clear  idea  of  the  trial 
of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  but  a  full  report  of  it  is  given 
by  the  historian  Hutchinson,  one  of  her  descendants.1 
It  is  a  humiliating  record  in  which  Winthrop,  who" 
presided  at  the  trial,  cuts  a  sorry  figure.  "We  have," 
says  Dr.  Ellis,2  "to  fall  back  upon  our  profound  im 
pressions  of  the  deep  sincerity  and  integrity  of  his 
character,  his  singleness  and  devotion  of  purpose, 
and  the  consecration  of  his  fortune  and  life  to  a  be 
loved  work  which  he  saw  threatened  with  a  dire  and 
humiliating  catastrophe,  to  read  without  some  falter 
ing  or  misgiving  of  approval,  not  to  say  with  regret 
and  reproach,  the  method  with  which  he  conducted 
the  examination  of  this  gifted  and  troublesome 
woman." 

No  definite  charges  had  been  filed,  so  that  the  ac 
cused  could  know  certainly  the  precise  nature  of  the 

1  Vol.  2,  App.,  p.  423,  et  seq. 
z  The  Puritan  Age,  p.  336. 


224  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

accusations  which  were  to  be  brought  against  her  and 
be  prepared  to  meet  them.  Besides  the  governor, 
there  were  present  at  the  trial,  Thomas  Dudley,  the 
deputy  governor,  several  of  the  assistants  and  depu 
ties*  and  the  ministers  of  Boston  and  the  neighbor 
ing  towns  were  there  in  force,  including  the  " Apos 
tle"  John  Eliot,  Thomas  Welde,  Hugh  Peter,  Thomas 
Shepard  and  others. 

Against  this  formidable  array  of  those  who  were 
at  once  her  enemies,  her  accusers,  and  her  judges,  the 
heroic  woman  stood  alone,  unrepresented  by  counsel 
or  friend,  but  she  bore  herself  with  matchless  skill 
and  self-command  and  with  undaunted  courage. 

Winthrop  opened  the  proceedings  with  the  follow 
ing  arraignment: 

"Mrs.  Hutchinson  you  are  called  here  as  one  of  those  that 
have  troubled  the  peace  of  the  Commonwealth  and  the 
Churches  here ;  you  are  known  to  be  a  woman  that  hath 
had  a  great  share  in  the  promoting  and  divulging  of  those 
opinions  that  are  causes  of  this  trouble,  and  to  be  nearly 
joined  not  only  in  affinity  and  affection  with  some  of  those 
the  Court  hath  taken  notice  of  and  pressed  censure  upon, 
but  you  have  spoken  divers  things,  as  we  have  been  in 
formed,  Very  prejudicial  to  the  honour  of  the  Churches 
and  ministers  thereof;  and  you  have  maintained  a  meeting 
and  an  assembly  in  your  house  that  hath  been  condemned 
by  the  general  assembly  as  a  thing  not  tolerable  nor  comely 
in  the  sight  of  God,  nor  fitting  for  your  sex  and  notwith 
standing  that  'twas  cried  down,  you  have  continued  the 
same." 

To  this  vague  accusation,  Mrs.  Hutchinson  an 
swered: 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE    THEOCRACY.  225 

"I  am  called  here  to  answer  before  you,  but  I  hear  no 
things  laid  to  my  charge." 

Then  there  was  a  sharp  running  debate  between 
her  and  the  governor,  in  which  Mrs.  Hutchinson 
certainly  held  her  own  and  finally  forced  Winthrop 
to  fall  back  upon  the  bald  statement,  which  Mrs. 
Hutchinson  could  not  gainsay:  "We  are  your  judges, 
and  not  you  ours,  and  we  must  compel  you  to  it." 

The  deputy  governor  and  various  elders  in  turn 
essayed  debate  with  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  but  she  met 
their  arguments  with  such  dexterity,  and  quoted 
scripture  so  abundantly,  that  all  were  worsted  in  the 
encounter. 

Mrs.  Hutchinson  then  desired  that  her  accusers 
might  be  required  to  " speak  upon  oath,"  especially 
as  they  were  " witnesses  in  their  own  cause."  The 
ministers  manifested  much  reluctance  to  testify  un 
der  oath,  and  for  a  time  the  trial  proceeded  without 
any  oath  being  required,  and  a  rambling  cross-fire 
ensued,  carried  on  between  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and 
various  members  of  the  court  and  several  of  the 
ministers  present.  But  Mrs.  Hutchinson  still  insisted 
that  her  accusers,  though  ministers,  should  be  sworn. 

At  this  stage  of  the  proceedings,  neither  Mrs. 
Hutchinson  nor  the  others  present  having  any  clear 
idea  of  what  the  trial  was  about,  Governor  Win 
throp  found  it  necessary  to  make  a  further  statement 
of  the  charges,  which  he  did  as  follows: 

"Gov.     Let  us   state  the  case  and  then  we  may  know 
what    to  do.     That    which    is  laid    to    Mrs.    Hutchinson' s 
charge  is  this,  that  she  hath  traduced  the  magistrates  and 
PUR.  REP. — 15 


226  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

ministers  of  this  jurisdiction,  that  she  hath  said  the  minis 
ters  preached  a  covenant  of  works  and  Mr.  Cotton  a  cove 
nant  of  grace,  and  that  they  were  not  able  ministers  of  the 
Gospel,  and  she  excuses  it  that  she  made  it  a  private  con 
ference  and  a  promise  of  secrecy  &c., — now  this  is  charged 
upon  her,  and  they  therefore  sent  for  her,  seeing  she  made 
it  her  table  talk,  and  then  she  said  the  fear  of  man  was  a 
snare,  and  therefore  she  would  not  be  afraid  of  them. 

"Mrs.  H.  This  that  yourself  hath  spoken  I  desire  that 
they  may  take  their  oaths  upon." 

The  debate  was  resumed  on  the  question  of  swear 
ing  the  accusers.  The  ministers  were  still  reluctant 
to  be  put  on  oath.  Mr.  Shepard  said:  "I  know 
no  reason  of  the  oath  but  the  importunity  of  this 
gentlewoman."  Mr.  Peter  said:  "We  are  tender 
of  it";  and  the  governor  asked:  " Shall  we  not 
believe  so  many  Godly  elders  in  a  cause  wherein 
we  know  the  mind  of  the  party  without  their 
testimony?"  Mr.  Eliot  thought  that  the  proper 
method  of  proceeding  was  to  examine  the  accused 
and  her  witnesses  first.  "We  desire,"  he  said, 
"  to  know  of  her  and  her  witnesses  ivhat  they 
deny,  and  then  we  shall  speak  upon  oath."  Mr. 
Harlakenden  wanted  to  have  her  "put  any  pas 
sage  unto  them  and  see  what  they  say,"  whereupon 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  promptly  answered:  "They  say  I 
said  'the  fear  of  man  is  a  snare,  why  should  I  be 
afraid?'  When  I  came  unto  them,  they  urging  many 
things  unto  me  and  I  being  backward  to  answer  at 
first,  at  length  this  scripture  came  unto  my  mind, 
xxixth  Prov.  25.  'The  fear  of  man  bringeth  a  snare: 
but  whoso  putteth  his  trust  in  the  Lord  shall  be 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE    THEOCRACY.  227 

safe.'  "  To  this,  all  that  the  Rev.  Mr.  Harlakenden 
had  to  say  was:  "This  is  not  an  essential  thing,"  but 
he  asked  Mrs.  Hutchinson  no  more  questions. 

During  the  discussion  about  swearing  the  accusers, 
Mr.  Bishop,  one  of  the  deputies,  ventured  to  ask 
this  question:  "I  desire  to  know  before  they  be  put 
to  oath,  whether  their  testimony  be  of  validity?" 
Whereupon  he  was  frowned  down  by  the  deputy 
governor  in  this  style:  "What  do  you  mean  to 
trouble  the  court  with  such  questions?  Mark  what  a 
flourish  Mrs.  Hutchinson  puts  upon  the  business  that 
she  had  witnesses  to  disprove  what  was  said,  and 
there  is  no  man  to  bear  witness."  Mr.  Coggshall, 
one  of  the  Boston  deputies,  suggested  that  it  was 
"desired  that  the  elders  would  confer  with  Mr.  Cotton 
before  they  swear,"  to  which  Endicott  replied:  "I 
will  tell  you  what  I  say.  I  think  this  carriage  of  yours 
tends  to  further  casting  dirt  upon  the  face  of  the 
judges." 

Then  it  was  determined  to  call  Mrs.  Hutchinson's 
witnesses  first,  and  Mr.  Coggshall  and  Mr.  Leveret 
were  called.  Mr.  Coggshall  was  quickly  disposed  of: 

"Dep.  Gov.     Let  her  witnesses  be  called. 

"Gov.     Who  be  they? 

"Mrs.  H.     Mr.  Leveret  and  our  teacher  Mr.  Coggshall. 

"Gov.     Mr.  Coggshall  was  not  present. 

"Mr.  Coggshall.  Yes  I  was,  only  I  desired  to  be  silent 
till  I  should  be  called. 

"Gov.     Will  you  Mr.  Coggshall  say  she  did  not  say  so? 

"Mr.  Coggshall.  Yes,  I  dare  say  that  she  did  not  say  all 
that  which  they  lay  against  her. 

"Mr.  Peters  [one  of  the  ministers.]  How  dare  you  look 
unto  the  Court  to  say  such  a  word? 


228  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

"Mr.  Coggshall.  Mr!  Peters  takes  upon  him  to  forbid 
me.  I  shall  be  silent  " 

The  substance  of  Mr.  Leveret's  testimony  was 
that  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  explanation  of  the  difference 
between  Cotton  and  the  other  ministers  was,  not  that 
the  latter  did  not  preach  a  covenant  of  grace,  but 
that  they  did  not  preach  it  "so  clearly  as  Cotton  did." 

During  the  trial  Mr.  Cotton  came  in  and  seated  him 
self  beside  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  and,  after  Coggshall  and 
Leveret  had  been  heard,  the  governor  asked  Cotton 
to  declare  what  he  remembered  of  Mrs.  Hutchin 
son's  words  at  the  conference  in  question.  It  was 
a  trying  ordeal  for  this  noted  minister.  If  he  had 
not  been  converted  to  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  views  he 
had  been  deeply  impressed  by  them.  "It  is  diffi 
cult,"  says  Hutchinson,1  "to  discover  from  Mr.  Cot 
ton's  own  account  of  his  principles,  published  ten 
years  afterwards  in  his  answer  to  Bailey,  wherein  he 
differed  from  her."  He  evidently  wished  to  testify  in 
a  way  to  shield  Mrs.  Hutchinson  as  much  as  possible, 
but  he  knew  that  he  himself  was  under  suspicion, 
and  that  all  around  him  were  catching  his  every 
word  and  watching  his  every  look  and  gesture. 
For  a  time  it  seemed  as  if  he,  and  not  Mrs.  Hutch 
inson,  was  the  accused,  and  one  of  the  ministers  (Mr. 
Bartholomew) ,  apparently  forgetting  that  it  was  the 
former  who  was  on  trial,  desired  "to  clear  Mr.  Cot 
ton."  The  deputy  governor  wanted  to  know  of 
him  whether  he  did  "approve  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson's 
revelations  as  she  hath  laid  them  down,"  and  Endi- 
cott  bluntly  asked  him:  "Whether  do  you  witness 

i  Vol.  i,  p.  73. 


RISE    AND    FALL    OF    THE    THEOCRACY.  229 

for  her  or  against  her ' '  •  and  the  deputy  governor,  after 
hearing  his  explanation,  told  him:  "Sir,  you  weary 
me  and  do  not  satisfy  me."  Others  prodded  Mr. 
Cotton  until  the  governor  came  to  his  relief  by  say 
ing:  "Mr.  Cotton  is  not  called  upon  to  answer  to 
anything,  but  we  are  to  deal  with  the  party  here 
standing  before  us." 

Then  Mr.  Coddington  (himself  afterward  ban 
ished)  desired  "to  speake  a  word,"  and  asked:  "What 
if  she  designed  to  -edify  her  own  family  in  her  own 
meetings,  may  none  else  be  present?"  But  the  gov 
ernor  summarily  cut  him  off  with  the  answer:  "If 
you  have  nothing  else  to  say  but  that,  it  is  pity,  Mr. 
Coddington,  that  you  should  interrupt  us  in  proceed 
ing  to  censure."  Coddington,  however,  persisted  in 
expressing  his  opinion.  He,  alone,  in  all  the  as 
sembly,  had  the  courage  to  oppose  its  action  and  to 
state  his  reasons.  He  insisted  that  there  was  "no 
law  of  God  that  she  hath  broken,  nor  any  law  of  the 
country  that  she  hath  broke' ' ;  that  she  was  accused 
only  of  what  she  had  spoken  in  private  to  the  elders; 
that  they  had  no  right  to  make  it  public,  and  that  it 
was  they  and  not  she  who  "have  broken  the  rules  of 
God's  word." 

Stoughton  was  one  of  those  present  who  had 
scruples  about  finding  Mrs.  Hutchinson  guilty  on  the 
unsworn  statements  of  her  accusers  "because,"  he 
said,  "she  hath  not  been  formally  convicted  as  others 
are  by  witnesses  upon  oath,"  and  at  this  stage  of  the 
proceedings  he  again  insisted  that  they  be  sworn, 
whereupon  the  governor  said:  "In  regard  Mr. 
Stoughton  is  not  satisfied,  to  the  end  all  scruples  may 


230  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

be    removed   we  shall   desire  the  elders  take  their 
oaths." 

"Here,  now,"  continues  the  record,  "was  a  great 
whispering  among  the  ministers;  some  drew  back, 
others  were  animated  on."  Then  Mr.  Eliot  and  Mr. 
Welde  were  sworn  and  testified  as  follows: 

"Mr,  Eliot.  I  do  remember  and  I  have  it  written  that 
which  she  spake  first  was,  the  fear  of  man  is  a  snare,  why 
should  she  be  afraid,  but  would  speak  freely.  The  question 
being  asked  whether  there  was  a  difference  between  Mr. 
Cotton  and  us,  she  said  there  was  a  broad  difference,  I 
would  not  stick  upon  the  words — the  thing  she  said — and 
that  Mr.  Cotton  did  preach  a  covenant  of  grace  and  we  of 
works,  and  she  gave  this  reason — to  put  a  work  in  point  of 
evidence  is  a  revealing  upon  a  work.  We  did  labor  then  to 
convince  her  that  our  doctrine  was  the  same  with  Mr.  Cot 
ton's;  She  said  no,  for  we  were  not  sealed.  That  is  all 
that  I  shall  say. 

"Gov.     What  say  you,  Mr.  Weld? 

"Mr.  Weld.  I  will  speak  to  the  things  themselves — these 
two  things  I  am  fully  clear  in — she  did  make  a  difference  in 
three  things  the  first  I  was  not  so  clear  in,  but  that  she  said 
this  I  am  fully  sure  of,  that  we  were  not  able  ministers  of 
the  New  Testament,  and  that  we  were  not  clear  in  our  ex 
perience  because  we  were  not  sealed. 

"Mr.  Eliot.  I  do  further  remember  that  also,  that  she 
said  we  were  not  able  ministers  of  the  gospel,  because  we 
were  like  the  apostles  before  the  ascension." 

The  report  records  the  wretched  conclusion  of  this 
miserable  judicial  farce  as  follows: 

"Gov.     The  Court  hath  already  declared  themselves  sat- 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE    THEOCRACY.  23! 

isfied  concerning  the  things  you  hear,  and  concerning  the 
troublesomeness  of  her  spirit  and  the  danger  of  her  course 
amongst  us,  which  is  not  to  be  suffered.  Therefore  if  it  be 
the  mind  of  the  Court  that  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  for  these  things 
that  appear  before  us,  is  unfit  for  our  society,  and  if  it  be 
the  mind  of  the  Court  that  she  shall  be  banished  out  of  our 
liberties  and  imprisoned  till  she  be  sent  away,  let  them  hold 
up  their  hands. 

"All  but  three. 

"Those  that  are  contrary  minded  hold  up  yours. 

"Mr  Coddington  and  Mr.  Colburn  only. 

"Mr.  Jennison  [a  deputy  of  Ipswich]  I  can  not  hold  up 
my  hand  one  way  or  the  other,  and  I  shall  give  my  reason 
if  the  court  require  it. 

"Gov.  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  the  sentence  of  the  court,  you 
hear  it,  that  you  are  banished  from  out  of  our  jurisdiction  as 
being  a  woman  not  fit  for  our  society,  and  are  to  be  im 
prisoned  till  the  Court  shall  send  you  away. 

"Mrs.  H.     I  desire  to  know  wherefore  I  am  banished? 

"Gov.  Say  no  more,  the  Court  knows  wherefore,  and  is 
satisfied." 

Mrs.  Hutchinson  had  been  cast  out  and  the  min 
isters  had  solemnly  adjudged  themselves  to  be  "able 
ministers,"  but  the  Massachusetts  commonwealth 
was  still  a  long  way  from  religious  liberty. 

Winthrop  tells  us  that  "because  it  was  winter  they 
committed  her  to  a  private  house,  where  she  was  well 
provided,  and  her  own  friends  and  the  elders  per 
mitted  to  go  to  her,  but  none  else."1  She  was  im 
prisoned  in  the  house  of  Mr.  Joseph  Welde  (brother 
of  the  minister)  of  Roxbury.  While  there  the  elders 
labored  with  her,  but  in  vain.  "When  subjected," 

1  Vol.  i,  pp.  246-7. 


232  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

says  Savage,1  "to  the  perpetual  buzzing  of  the  cler 
ical  tormentor,  she  must  have  been  more  than  woman, 
not  to  prove  incorrigible."  She  "persisted  in  main 
taining  those  gross  errors  beforementioned,  and  many 
others,  to  the  number  of  thirty  or  thereabout," 
and  so  "the  church,  with  one  consent,  cast  her  out,"2 
and  soon  afterward  she  was  banished  from  the  com 
monwealth.  She  and  her  husband  went  to  Aquid- 
neck  in  what  is  now  Rhode  Island.  He  died  in  1642, 
and  in  1643  she  and  most  of  her  family  were  murdered 
by  the  Indians  at  one  of  the  Dutch  settlements  in  New 
York  near  the  west  end  of  Long  Island.  No  names  are 
more  honored  in  Massachusetts  to-day  than  those  of 
some  of  her  patriotic  and  distinguished  descendants.3 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  having  been  disposed  of,  the 
General  Court  next  proceeded  to  put  upon  the  rack 
those  who  had  signed  the  remonstrance  against  the 
prosecution  of  the  charges  against  Wheelwright,  and 
they  were  severely  dealt  with.  Some,  including 
William  Coddington  and  John  Coggshall,  who 
were  especially  obnoxious  because  they  had  favored 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  on  her  trial,  were  banished, 
and  a  large  number,  including  several  prominent 
citizens  of  Boston  and  the  other  towns,  were  humil 
iated  by  being  ordered  to  give  up  all  their  arms 
and  ammunition.4  "The  confusion  in  the  colony 

1  Winthrop,  Vol.  i,  p.  247  note. 

2  Winthrop,  Vol.  i,  pp.  254,  258. 

8  The  Puritan  historians  do  not  fail  to  record  the  Divine  judgments 
visited  upon  Mrs.  Hutchinson  after  her  banishment,  and  Winthrop  and 
Cotton  Mather  both  relate,  with  disgusting  detail,  the  ridiculous  stories 
about  her  having  been  delivered  of  thirty  monstrous  births,  "none  of 
any  humane  shape  "  corresponding  in  number  with  the  monstrous  opin 
ions  of  which  she  had  been  convicted.  Winthrop,  Vol.  i,  p.  271; 
Magnalia,  Vol.  2,  p.  19. 

4  Winthrop,  Vol.  i,  p.  247. 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE   THEOCRACY.  233 

occasioned  by  these  religious  disputes,"  says  Hutchin- 
son,  " was  very  great,  and  it  appears  from  the  letters 
then  wrote  from  England,  that  they  made  great  noise 
there."1 

The  great  Cotton  himself  narrowly  escaped.  Prior 
to  the  trial  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  his  brother  minis 
ters,  fearing  that  he,  had  become  contaminated  by  his 
association  with  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  Wheelwright, 
had  labored  with  him  in  order  to  eradicate  the  hid 
den  germs  of  religious  heresy,  and  with  such  success 
that  the  differences  between  Cotton  and  his  brethren, 
diminished  "so  as,  except  men  of  good  understand 
ing,  and  such  as  knew  the  bottom  of  the  tenets  of 
those  of  the  other  party,  few  could  see  where  the  dif 
ference  was."2  To  make  sure  that  he  had  been 
thoroughly  disinfected,  he  was  subjected  to  a  rigid 
inspection.  Some  of  the  ministers  "drew  out  six 
teen  points"  upon  which  he  was  closely  catechised. 
"Some  doubts  he  well  cleared,  but  in  some  others 
he  gave  not  satisfaction."3  At  the  trial  of  Mrs. 
Hutchinson  the  Theocracy  was  at  high  tide,  and  it 
was  then  undoubtedly  evident  to  Cotton,  as  it  was  to 
every  one  else,  that  little  more  effort  would  be  made 
to  persuade  him,  and  that,  if  he  dared  openly  to 
avow  the  sentiments  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  Wheel 
wright,  he  would  as  certainly  and  as  relentlessly  be 
swept  away  as  they  had  been.  Cotton  therefore 
yielded  and  persisted  in  his  effort  to  regain  his  former 
standing  until  he  had  sufficiently  established  his  or- 

>Vol.x,p.7j. 

2  Winthrop,  Vol.  i,  p.  221. 
8  Winthrop,  Vol.  i,  p.  212. 


234  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

thodoxy,  " and  by  that  means,"  says  Hubbard,1  "did 
that  reverend  and  worthy  minister  of  the  gospel  re 
cover  his  former  splendour,"  and  thereafter  he  con 
tinued  to  be  a  bright  and  shining  light  and  chosen 
champion  against  all  "errors." 

-  In  1646  what  seemed  at  first  to  be  a  very  for 
midable  and  •  dangerous  opposition  appeared  in  the 
form  of  a  petition  presented  to  the  General  Court  by 
William  Vassal,  Samuel  Maverick,  Robert  Child  and 
others,  complaining  of  the  failure  of  the  colony  to 
acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  the  laws  of  England, 
and  the  denial  to  those,  who  were  not  members  of 
the  churches  recognized  by  the  colonists  as  orthodox, 
of  their  civil  and  religious  rights  as  Englishmen,  and 
praying  that  they  might  be  allowed  the  privileges 
then  refused  them  or  be  freed  from  the  taxes  and 
other  burdens  imposed  upon  them,  and  concluding 
with  an  ominous  threat  that,  if  their  petition  were  not 
granted,  "we  and  they  shall  be  necessitated  to  apply 
our  humble  desires  to  the  Honorable  Houses  of  Par 
liament."  Their  petition  having  been  refused,  they 
prayed  an  appeal  to  the  Commissioners  of  Planta 
tions  in  England,  but  this  prayer  was  also  refused. 
Some  of  them  being  about  to  start  to  England  to  lay 
in  their  complaints,  their  papers  were  seized,  and 
among  them  was  found  a  petition  to  the  Commis 
sioners  of  Plantations,  alleging  the  grievances  com 
plained  of  in  the  petition  to  the  General  Court,  and 
praying  the  same  relief,  also  charging  various  usur 
pations  of  authority  and  treasonable  conduct  and 
speeches  of  the  authorities  and  ministers,  and  asking 

1  Hist.  N.  E.y  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  2d  Ser.,  Vol.  5,  p.  302. 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE   THEOCRACY.  235 

the  appointment  of  a  royal  governor  "or  some  hon 
ourable  commissioners." 

The  signers  to  the  petition  were  heavily  fined. 
Maverick  and  Child  and  some  others  got  back  to 
England  and  there  renewed  their  complaints,  causing 
the  colonists  great  alarm;  but  Cromwell  and  the  In 
dependents  were  then  in  power  in  England  and  they 
were  the  steadfast  friends  of  the  authorities  in  Massa 
chusetts.  Mr.  Winslow  was  instructed  to  defend  the 
colonists  against  the  petitioners,  "and  by  his  prudent 
management  and  the  credit  and  esteem  he  was  in 
with  many  of  the  members  of  parliament  and  prin 
cipal  persons  then  in  power,  he  prevented  any  pre 
judice  to  the  colony."1 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  so  many  heretics  had 
been  banished  or  subdued,  religious  controversies  did 
not  cease.  The  Baptists  had  not  yet  been  effectually 
silenced  and  another  humiliating  chapter  was  added 
to  the  history  of  religious  persecutions  in  Massachu 
setts.  The  law  against  the  Baptists,  passed  in  1644, 
has  already  been  mentioned.  Numbers  of  them  were 
fined,  whipped  and  banished. 

The  treatment  of  John  Clarke,  John  Crandall,  and 
Obadiah  Holmes  illustrates  the  severity  with  which 
the  Baptists  were  persecuted.  All  of  them  were 
prominent  citizens  of  Rhode  Island,  who  had  fled  to 
that  colony  from  Massachusetts  on  account  of  their 
religious  belief.  Clarke  and  Holmes  were  Baptist 
ministers.  The  latter  had  been  educated  at  Oxford. 
In  1651,  William  Witter,  an  aged,  blind  and  infirm 
Baptist  at  Lynn,  requested  that  some  of  his  Baptist 

1  Hutchinson,  Vol.  i,  pp.  136-140. 


236  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

brethren  in  Rhode  Island  might  be  sent  to  administer 
the  sacrament  to  him,  and  Clarke,  Crandall  and 
Holmes  visited  him  for  that  purpose.  Before  this 
time  Holmes  had  rendered  himself  specially  obnox 
ious  to  the  Massachusetts  authorities.  On  the  next 
day,  Sunday,  two  constables  entered  Writer's  house, 
where  Clarke  was  preaching  to  a  few  friends,  and 
arrested  the  preacher  and  his  companions.  As  the 
beginning  of  their  punishment,  they  were  taken 
to  the  orthodox  church  in  Lynn  and  compelled  to 
listen  to  the  preaching  of  the  minister,  Mr.  Whiting. 
The  next  day  they  were  taken  to  Boston  and  impris 
oned.  Cotton,  after  his  escape  from  condemnation 
as  a  heretic,  never  lost  an  opportunity  of  parading 
his  own  orthodoxy,  and  he  improved  the  present  oc 
casion  by  preaching  a  sermon,  in  which  he  is  reported 
to  have  said,  "that  denying  Infants  Baptism  would 
overthrow  all,  and  this  was  a  capitall  offence;  and, 
therefore,  they  'were  foul  murthurers"  Endicott,  in 
order  to  impress  upon  them  the  leniency  of  the 
authorities,  told  them  that  they  deserved  to  die,  but 
that  their  lives  would  be  spared.  All  were  fined, 
Holmes  being  fined  most  heavily,  with  the  further 
penalty  of  being  whipped  for  non-payment.  Holmes 
refusing  to  pay,  or  to  allow  his  friends  to  pay,  his 
fine,  was  stripped  and  flogged.  While  he  was  being 
so  punished,  two  of  the  bystanders,  taking  pity  upon 
him,  shook  hands  with  him  and  expressed  their  sym 
pathy,  whereupon  they  also  were  fined.  So  fully  had 
the  spirit  of  persecution  possessed  the  authorities  that 
they  caused  the  old  and  blind  Witter  to  be  presented 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE    THEOCRACY.  237 

to  the  next  Salem  court,  "for  neglecting  discourses 
and  being  rebaptized"^ 

A  few  years  later  (in  1654)  Henry  Dunster,  the 
first  president  of  Harvard  College,  was  degraded 
from  office  for  his  denial  of  the  validity  of  infant  bap 
tism. 

There  were  other  persecutions  of  the  Baptists,  but, 
notwithstanding  the  fines,  imprisonments  and  banish 
ments,  they  persisted  in  maintaining  their  faith.  The 
opposition  to  the  persecution  of  men  for  their  relig 
ious  opinions  grew  steadily,  and  every  new  persecu 
tion  increased  the  popular  discontent,  until  in  1665 
the  Baptists  established  a  church  in  Boston,  where 
they  have  maintained  a  church  organization  from 
that  day  to  this. 

Other  far  more  persistent  and  more  resolute  foes 
now  appeared  to  oppose  and  plague  the  pious  Puri 
tans.  George  Fox,  the  Quaker,  had  appeared  in 
England,  and  he  and  his  converts  had  thrown  that 
kingdom  into  a  tumult  by  their  outlandish  conduct 
and  crazy  utterances.  Some  of  his  disciples  crossed 
the  Atlantic,  and  in  1656  two  Quaker  women,  Ann 
Austin  and  Mary  Fisher,  boldly  invaded  the  Massa 
chusetts  commonwealth.  They  seemed  to  take  de 
light  in  tormenting  and  defying  the  authorities.  The 
laws  enacted  against  them  have  been  mentioned. 
The  fines,  imprisonments  and  scourgings,  which 
were  inflicted  for  violations  of  these  laws,  proved 
utterly  unavailing  to  keep  out  or  to  drive  out  these, 
by  far  the  most  persistent  of  all  the  "pestilent  here 
tics"  who  had  ever  before  opposed  or  vexed  the  com- 

1  III  Neives  from   Netv  England,  2   Mass.  His.  Coll.,  4th   Ser.,  p.  i, 
et  seq.;   The  Puritan  Age,  pp.  390-4. 


238  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

monwealth  authorities.  Then  banishment  followed. 
The  penalty  for  returning  after  banishment  was 
death.  But  some  of  those  banished  persisted  in  re 
turning,  as  if  for  the  express  purpose  of  defying  the 
authorities  of  the  commonwealth,  regardless  of  the 
legal  penalty. 

To  the  authorities  it  seemed  that  to  waver  now 
was  virtually,  not  only  to  surrender  to  law-breakers, 
but  to  abdicate  in  their  favor.  The  authorities  did  not 
waver.  One  of  those  who  had  returned  after  ban 
ishment  was  sentenced  to  be  hanged.  But  still  the 
Quakers  came.  Then  another  was  sentenced  to  be 
hanged,  and  then  another,  and  then  another,  until 
four  ghastly  corpses,  three  men  and  one  woman,  hung 
in  sight  of  heaven  and  men — mute  witnesses,  more  con 
vincing  by  far  in  death  than  in  life,  giving  awful  proof 
of  the  impotency  of  the  Theocracy  to  make  all  Gt>d's 
children  think  alike,  and  of  the  immutable  fact  that 
hanging  a  man,  who  sincerely  believes  that  he  is 
right,  is  the  least  effective  of  all  arguments  to  con 
vince  him  that  he  is  wrong. 

There  was  one  more  death  sentence — that  of  Wen- 
lock  Christison — but  it  never  was  executed.  There 
were  to  be  no  more  hangings  in  the  Massachusetts 
commonwealth  of  men  and  women  for  their  opinions. 
"The  compassion  of  the  people,"  says  Hutchinson, 
"was  moved,  and  many  resorted  to  the  prison  by  day 
and  night,  and  upon  a  representation  of  the  keeper  a 
constant  watch  was  kept  round  the  prison  to  keep 
people  off."1 

The  law  affixing  the  death  penalty  for  the  return  of 

1  Vol.  i,  p.  185. 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE   THEOCRACY.  239 

banished  Quakers  had  been  passed  by  a  slender  ma 
jority.  When  the  victims  of  the  former  trials  were 
led  to  the  scaffold  armed  troops  accompanied  them  to 
the  place  of  execution,  and  patrols  were  posted  about 
the  town  to  prevent  an  uprising  of  the  people  and  a 
possible  rescue.  The  popular  discontent  was  unmis 
takable  and  threatening.  Upon  the  trial  of  Christison 
the  triers  manifested  unwonted  hesitation.  They  de 
liberated  two  weeks,  and  only  the  overpowering  influ 
ence  of  Endicott  induced  them  to  yield  an  unwilling 
verdict.  The  sentence  never  was  executed.  The  exe 
cution  of  it  might  have  precipitated  a  rebellion. 

Next  came  a  message  from  the  king  of  England, 
commanding  that  there  should  be  no  more  executions 
and  that  those  confined  in  prison  should  be  sent  to 
England  for  trial.  To  the  imperious  will  of  Endi 
cott  was  presented  the  hard  alternative  of  releasing 
the  prisoners,  or  acknowledging  the  right  of  English 
courts  to  try  offenders  against  the  laws  of  the  com 
monwealth.  The  consequences  to  be  apprehended 
from  the  latter  course  were  to  be  feared  far  more 
than  the  consequences  of  the  first,  and  so  the  bolts 
were  loosed  and  men  came  forth  free  who  had  ex 
pected  never  more  to  walk  in  heaven's  sunshine  ex 
cept  from  the  prison  to  the  scaffold.1 

There  were  more  whippings  and  civil  punishments 
after  that,  but  at  last  the  bloody  record  was  closed; 
"the  contest  of  will  was  at  an  end.  The  trial  that 
was  to  decide  which  party  would  hold  out  longest 
had  been  made  and  the  Quakers  had  conquered."2 

1  The  poet  Whittier  has  commemorated  the  glad  day  for  the  Quakers 
in  the  "King's  Missive,"  to  which  poem  is  given  the  post  of  honor  in 
the  Memorial  History  of  Boston. 

"Palfrey,  Vol.  2,  p.  481, 


XI 

RISE  AND  FALL  OF  THE  THEOCRACY 

WE  can  not  severely  censure  the  authorities  of  the 
commonwealth  for  their  harsh  treatment  of  some 
whom  they  refused  to  tolerate.  Soon  after  the  settle 
ment  of  the  colony  there  began  to  flock  thither  from 
England  men  with  all  kinds  of  notions,  which  they 
were  not  backward  in  propagating  and  which  were 
subversive,  or  thought  to  be  so,  not  only  of  the  re 
ligious,  but  of  the  political  foundations  of  the  com 
monwealth.  "They  were  all,"  says  Oliver,1  who 
can  not  be  suspected  of  a  desire  to  excuse  or  apologize 
for  Puritan  intolerance,  " characterized  by  offensive 
qualities,  and  some  of  their  peculiarities  almost  justify 
the  extravagant  language  in  which  the  Puritan  his 
torian  was  accustomed  to  clothe  his  relations." 

Of  these  the  Familists  were  fair  samples,  and,  in 
speaking  of  them,  Oliver  seems  to  be  " almost  per 
suaded"  to  take  the  side  of  the  Puritans.  Of  the 
Familists  he  says: 

"Among  the  first  victims  of  the  Puritan  Church  were  the 
Familists.  These  singular  maniacs,  who  styled  themselves 
'The  Family  of  Love,'  owed  their  origin  to  David  George, 
of  Delft,  an  enthusiast  who  believed  himself  the  Messiah. 

1  The  Puritan  Common-wealth,  p.  194. 

(240) 


RISE    AND    FALL   OF   THE    THEOCRACY.  241 

They  branched  off  into  the  various  sects  of  Grindletonians, 
Familists  of  the  Mountains,  of  the  Valleys,  of  Cape  Order, 
of  the  Scattered  Flock,  etc.  They  renounced  the  principal 
doctrines  of  Christianity,  which  they  held  to  be  superseded 
by  the  advent  of  David  George,  and  are  said  to  have  prac 
ticed  among  themselves  the  grossest  libertinism." 

The  effect  of  their  teachings  is  seen  in  the  case  of 
Samuel  Gorton,  one  of  the  most  noted  of  the  Fami 
lists,  who,  wherever  he  went,  immediately  stirred  up 
a  quarrel,  not  only  with  the  churches,  but  also  with 
the  civil  authorities.  The  toleration  of  such  fanatics 
would  have  been  much  more  difficult  and  much  more 
dangerous,  at  that  period  in  the  history  of  the  com 
monwealth,  thaji  would  be  the  toleration  of  anarchists 
in  any  of  the  states  in  the  Union  to-day. 

The  same  excuse  can  not,  however,  be  made  for 
the  persecutions  of  the  Baptists  and  the  Quakers.  It 
has  sometimes  been  attempted  tof  excuse  the  hanging 
of  the  Quakers  on  the  ground  that  they  were  not 
hanged  for  persisting  in  their  religious  opinions,  but 
for  returning  after  banishment.  For  a  long  time  the 
standard  apology  was  expressed,  with  more  or  less 
elaboration,  but  substantially  according  to  the  follow 
ing  formula: 

"A  law  was  passed  prohibiting  Quakers  from  coming  into 
the  colony,  imposing  the  penalty  of  banishment  upon  the 
first  offence,  and  of  death  upon  such  as  should  return  after 
banishment.  Four,  who  were  so  infatuated  as  to  return 
and  obtrude  themselves  upon  the  notice  of  the  government, 
suffered  the  death  which  they  appeared  to  seek."2 

1  The  Puritan  Commonwealth,  p.  194. 

2  H ale's  His.  United  States,  p.  37. 

PUR.  REP. — 16 


242  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

This  does  not  help  the  matter,  for,  as  main 
tained  by  Mr.  Hallowell  and  the  Quaker  historians, 
the  rulers  of  the  commonwealth  had  no  more  au 
thority  to  banish  the  Quakers  than  they  had  to  hang 
them.  The  claim  of  right  to  banish  them  is  based 
upon  the  assumption  that  the  country  belonged  to 
the  Massachusetts  Company,  and  that  the  members 
of  it  had  a  lawful  right  to  admit  or  to  keep  out  whom 
they  pleased,  and  that,  when  they  found  any  here 
whose  religious  views  and  practices  conflicted  with 
their  own,  they  were  justified  in  treating  such  comers 
as  intruders  and  in  expelling  them  from  the  com 
pany's  territory. 

But  the  assumption  upon  which  this  argument  is 
based  has  no  solid  foundation.  It  is  incredible  that 
King  Charles  or  the  Parliament  intended  to  couple 
with  the  gift  of  the  large  territory  granted  to  the 
Puritans  authority  to  keep  out  of  it  every  one  that 
did  not  profess  the  latter's  religious  opinions — even 
members  of  the  established  church  of  England.  No 
clause  in  the  charter  can  be  so  distorted  as  to  bear 
such  a  construction.  On  the  contrary  it  was  ex 
pressly  provided  in  the  charter, 

"That  all  and  every  of  the  subjects  of  us,  our  Heirs  and 
Successors,  which  shall  goe  to  and  inhabite  within  the  saide 
Lands  and  Premises  hereby  mentioned  to  be  graunted,  and 
every  of  their  Children  which  shall  happen  to  be  borne 
there,  or  on  the  seas  in  going  thither,  or  retorning  from 
thence,  shall  have  and  enjoy  all  liberties  and  Immunities  of 
free  and  Natural  subjects  within  any  of  the  Domynions  of 
Us,  our  Heirs  or  Successors,  to  all  intents,  Constructions, 
and  Purposes  whatsoever,  as  yf  they  and  everie  of  them 
were  borne  within  the  Realm  of  England." 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE    THEOCRACY.  243 

With  respect  to  the  right  of  Baptists,  Quakers,  and 
others  that  were  not  Puritans,  to  come  here  and  live 
here,  and  enjoy  their  own  religious  views  and  methods 
of  worship  as  freely  as  they  might  in  England,  we  must 
admit  that  this  much  at  least  was  guaranteed  by  the 
charter  itself.  And  a  fair  and  reasonable  interpreta 
tion  of  the  charter  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  there 
was  nothing  in  it  justifying  their  exclusion  from  the 
exercise  of  the  right  to  vote  and  from  other  privileges 
of  citizenship. 

Another  claim  urged  in  behalf  of  the  Puritans  is, 
that  the  commonwealth  would  have  gone  to  pieces  if 
unlimited  religious  tolerance  had  been  permitted; 
but  Mr.  Charles  Francis  Adams1  answers  this  by 
showing  that,  upon  a  similar  assumption,  the  defense 
of  religious  intolerance  at  all  times  and  in  all  coun 
tries  has  been  based. 

So  that,  after  all,  the  most  that  can  be  said  in  pal 
liation  of  these  Puritan  persecutions  is,  that  the  per 
secutors  were  sincere  in  their  belief  that  they  had  a 
right  to  do  as  they  did,  and  that,  in  entertaining  and 
acting  on  such  belief,  they  were  no  more  intolerant 
than  were  other  civilized  people  of  the  same  period. 

Of  the  Quakers  it  may  be  said  further  that  they 
gave  such  provocation  as  was  certain  in  that  age, 
and  would  be  almost  as  certain  in  this,  to  arouse 
the  most  angry  and  hostile  opposition.  For  the 
Quakers  of  those  times  were  as  different  from  the 
Quakers  of  to-day  as  the  Puritans  were  different 
from  their  descendants  who  are  now  living. 

It  has  been  asserted  that  the  Quaker  women  carried 

1  Massachusetts,  Its  Historians  and  Its  History. 


244  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

their  insulting  defiance  to  the  extent  of  exhibiting 
themselves  in  a  nude  condition  to  the  gaze  of  Puritans 
assembled  for  religious  worship.  This  is  not  denied 
by  their  defender,  Mr.  Hallowell,  but  his  explanation 
is  that  the  women  who  so  acted  were  not  in  their 
right  minds,  or  that  they  were  goaded  to  such  un 
seemly  exhibitions  by  Puritan  persecutions.  Be  this 
as  it  may,  it  can  not  be  denied  that  the  Quakers  went 
far  beyond  the  bounds  of  propriety  and  decency  in 
their  efforts  to  annoy  and  tantalize  the  Puritans. 

In  our  own  day  the  conduct  of  the  Salvation  Army 
has  often  provoked  riots.  But  the  wildest  antics  of 
the  Salvationists  bear  no  comparison  to  the  carefully 
premeditated  and  offensive  insults  of  the  Quakers  to 
the  Puritans.  Sometimes  these  gentle  disciples  of 
Fox  would  run  howling  through  the  streets,  pro 
claiming  that  the  Lord  was  coming  with  fire  and 
sword  to  exterminate  their  Puritan  brethren;  at 
other  times  they  appeared  in  the  churches  in  out 
landish  garb,  sometimes  with  blackened  faces,  and 
openly  reviled  the  preacher  and  denounced  woe  upon 
the  congregation;  at  other  times  they  broke  empty 
bottles  before  the  preacher's  face,  reminding  him  of 
his  emptiness  and  that  the  Lord  would  likewise  dash 
him  in  pieces. 

Hutchinson  wrote  his  "History  of  Massachusetts"  a' 
hundred  years  after  the  Quaker  persecutions.  He  is 
generally  regarded  as  a  careful  and  accurate  histo 
rian.  He  is  certainly  not  a  thick  and  thin  apolo 
gist  for  the  Puritans.  He  says:1 

"Some  at  Salem,  Hampton,  Newbury  and  other  places, 
*His.  Mass.,  Vol,  x,  p,  187. 


RISE    AND    FALL    OF   THE    THEOCRACY.  245 

for  disorderly  behaviour,  putting  people  in  terror,  coming 
into  the  congregations  and  calling  to  the  minister  in  the 
time  of  public  worship,  declaring  their  preaching,  &c.,  to 
be  an  abomination  to  the  Lord,  and  other  breaches  of  the 
peace,  were  ordered  to  be  whipped  by  the  authority  of  the 
county  courts  or  particular  magistrates.  At  Boston  one 
George  Wilson,  and  at  Cambridge  Elizabeth  Horton,  went 
crying  through  the  streets,  that  the  Lord  was  coming  with 
fire  and  sword  to  plead  with  them.  Thomas  Newhouse 
went  into  the  meeting-house  at  Boston  with  a  couple  of 
glass  bottles,  and  broke  them  before  the  congregation,  and 
threatened,  'Thus  will  the  Lord  break  you  in  pieces.'  An 
other  time  M.  Brewster  came  in  with  her  face  smeared  and 
as  black  as  a  coal.  Deborah  Wilson  went  through  the 
streets  of  Salem,  naked  as  she  came  into  the  world,  for 
which  she  was  well  whipped.  For  these  and  such  like 
disturbances  they  might  be  declared  proper  subjects  either 
of  a  mad-house  or  house  of  correction,  and  it  is  to  be 
lamented  that  any  greater  seventies  were  made  use  of." 

Such  conduct  in  any  church  to-day  would  proba 
bly  provoke  rough  handling  of  the  intruder.  It  cer 
tainly  would  land  him  in  jail,  and  he  might  deem 
himself  lucky  if  he  escaped  with  no  worse  punish 
ment. 

Long  before  the  end  of  the  commonwealth  itself 
hostile  forces  were  slowly  but  surely  undermining  the 
power  of  the  Theocracy.  The  Theocracy  contained 
in  itself  the  elements  of  its  own  destruction.  It  was 
based  upon  the  idea  of  forcing  all  men  to  believe 
alike.  The  effort  to  do  so  always  breeds  discord, 
and  the  men  who  attempt  it  generally  end  by  dis 
agreeing  among  themselves.  That  was  the  course 
of  the  Massachusetts  Theocracy.  The  members  of 


246  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

it  not  only  failed  in  their  effort  to  compel  others  to 
believe  as  they  did,  but  they  were  continually  dis 
agreeing  with  one  another. 

New  doctrines  and  new  sects  soon  began  to  spring 
up  with  amazing  rapidity.  The  attempts  to  repress 
them  only  strengthened  them  and  created  further 
schisms.  Every  day  it  was  becoming  more  and  more 
difficult  to  designate  those  of  the  genuine  orthodox 
stamp.  "Eighty-two  'pestilent  heresies'  were  counted 
as  having  already  sprung  up  in  1637;  others  say  one 
hundred  and  six;  others  two  hundred  and  ten."1 

At  the  first  synod  held  at  Newtown,  in  1637,  " there 
were  about  eighty  opinions,  some  blasphemous,  others 
erroneous,  and  all  unsafe,  condemned  by  the  whole 
assembly."2 

Besides  the  "erroneous  opinions"  discussed  by  the 
synod  in  1637  there  were  also  found  to  be  nine  "un 
wholesome  expressions  ?;  and  divers  "  scriptures 
abused."  What  these  erroneous  and  heretical  opin 
ions  were  "is  written,"  says  Mr.  Savage,3  "in  4A 
short  Story  of  the  Rise,  Reign  and  Ruin  of  Antino- 
mians,  Familists,  and  Libertines,  that  infected  the 
churches  of  New  England,'  by  Thomas  Welde,  who 
was  one  of  the  chief  inquisitors." 

But  it  is  not  material  to  the  modern  layman  what 
were  the  heretical  opinions,  since  those  approved  by 
the  synod  as  orthodox  are  equally  unintelligible. 

"After  the  errors  condemned,  there  were  five  points  in 
question,  between  Mr.  Cotton  and  Mr.  Wheelwright  on  the 

1T.  W.  Higginson:      The  Puritan  Minister,  12  Atl.  Mon.  265-278. 
2  Winthrop,  Vol.  i,  p.  238.     See  Ellis,  Puritan  Age,  330-333. 
8  Winthrop,  Vol.  i,  p.  238,  note  I. 


RISE   AND    FALL   OF   THE    THEOCRACY.  247 

one  part,  and  the  rest  of  the  elders  on  the  other  part,  v/hich 
were  after  reduced  to  three,  and  those  after  put  into  such 
expressions  as  Mr.  Cotton  and  they  agreed,  but  Mr.  Wheel 
wright  did  not : 

"i.  The  first  was  about  our  union  with  Christ.  The 
question  was,  whether  we  were  united  before  we  had  active 
faith.  The  consent  was,  that  there  was  no  marriage  union 
with  Christ  before  actual  faith,  which  is  more  than  habitual. 

"2.  The  second  was,  about  evidencing  justification  by 
sanctification.  The  consent  was,  that  some  saving  sancti- 
fications  (as  faith,  etc.)  were  coexistent,  concurrent,  and 
coapparent  (or  at  least  might  be)  with  the  witness  of  the 
Spirit  always. 

"3.  That  the  new  creature  is  not  the  person  of  a  be 
liever,  but  a  body  of  saving  graces  in  such  a  one ;  and  that 
Christ,  as  a  head,  doth  enliven  or  quicken,  preserve  and  act 
the  same,  but  Christ  himself  is  no  part  of  this  new  creature. 

"4.  That  though,  in  effectual  calling,  (in  which  the  an 
swer  of  the  soul  is  by  active  faith,  wrought  at  the  same  in 
stant  by  the  Spirit,)  justification  and  sanctification  be  all 
together  in  them  ;  yet  God  doth  not  justify  a  man,  before  he 
be  effectually  called,  and  so  a  believer. 

"  5  •  That  Christ  and  his  benefits  may  be  offered  and  ex 
hibited  to  a  man  under  a  covenant  of  works,  but  not  in  or 
by  a  covenant  of  works." 

Moreover  ''other  opinions  brake  out  publicly  in  the 
church  of  Boston, — as  that  the  Holy  Ghost  dwelt  in  a  be 
liever  as  in  Heaven ;  that  a  man  is  justified  before  he  be 
lieves;  and  that  faith  is  no  cause  of  justification.  And  oth 
ers  spread  more  secretly, — as  that  the  letter  of  the  scripture 
holds  forth  nothing  but  a  covenant  of  works ;  and  that  the 
covenant  of  grace  was  the  spirit  of  the  scripture,  which 
was  known  only  to  believers ;  and  that  this  covenant  of 
works  was  given  by  Moses  in  the  ten  commandments ;  that 

1  Winthrop,  Vol.  i,  p.  239. 


248  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

there  was  a  seed  (viz.,  Abraham's  carnal  seed)  went  along- 
in  this,  and  there  was  a  spirit  and  life  in  it,  by  virtue 
whereof  a  man  might  attain  to  any  sanctification  in  gifts  and 
graces,  and  might  have  spiritual  and  continual  communion 
with  Jesus  Christ,  and  yet  be  damned.  After,  it  was 
granted,  that  faith  was  before  justification,  but  it  was  only 
passive,  an  empty  vessel,  etc. ;  but  in  conclusion,  the 
ground  of  all  was  found  to  be  assurance  by  immediate  reve 
lation. 

"All  the  congregation  of  Boston,  except  four  or  five, 
closed  with  these  opinions,  or  the  most  of  them ;  but  one 
of  the  brethren  wrote  against  them,  and  bore  witness  to  the 
truth ;  together  with  the  pastor,  and  very  few  others  joined 
with  them."  1 

It  was  in  1636,  during  the  Antinomian  troubles, 
that  religious  vagaries  and  the  dissensions  growing 
out  of  them  reached  their  greatest  height.  Few  now 
know  what  were  the  doctrines  included  under  the 
term  Antinomianism.  They  are  not  quite  so  inter 
esting  as  the  relics  of  the  Saurian  age,  but  those  who 
wish  to  know  what  they  were  will  probably  find  in 
Dr.  Ellis's  "  Puritan  Age"2  as  lucid  an  explanation 
of  them  as  it  is  possible  to  impart  to  modern  laymen. 

"The  differences  in  the  said  points  of  religion,"  says 
Winthrop,  "increased  more  and  more,  and  the  ministers  of 
both  sides  (there  being  only  Mr.  Cotton  of  one  party) 
did  publicly  declare  their  judgments  in  some  of  them,  so  as 
all  men's  mouths  were  full  of  them.  *  *  *  Thus 
every  occasion  increased  the  contention,  and  caused  great 
alienation  of  minds;  and  the  members  of  Boston  (frequent 
ing  the  lectures  of  other  ministers)  did  make  much  dis- 

1  Winthrop,  Vol.  I,  p.  211. 
.•  Chap.  9. 


RISE   AND    FALL   OF   THE   THEOCRACY.  249 

turbance  by  public  questions,  and  objections  to  their  doc 
trines,  which  did  any  way  disagree  from  their  opinions; 
and  it  began  to  be  as  common  here  to  distinguish  between 
men,  by  being  under  a  covenant  of  grace  or  a  covenant  of 
works,  as  in  other  countries  between  Protestants  and  Pa 
pists."1 

So  thoroughly  had  the  people  of  Boston  become 
inoculated  with  "errors"  that  in  1636,  as  has  already 
been  mentioned,  it  was  deemed  unsafe  to  hold  the 
General  Court  there,  and  it  was  moved  that  the  next 
one  be  held  at  Newtown. 

"The  town  and  country,  "says  Hutchinson,2  "were 
distracted  with  these  subtleties,  and  every  man  and 
woman  who  had  brains  enough  to  form  some  imper 
fect  conception  of  them,  inferred  and  maintained  some 
other  point." 

The  contagion  of  "error"  spread  to  the  General 
Court  itself  and  infected  members  so  that  "when  any 
matter  about  these  new  opinions  was  mentioned  the 
court  was  divided,"  though  the  "greater  number 
far  were  sound."3 

In  the  strife  about  theological  quibbles,  the  mad 
wrangle  over  metaphysical  abstractions,  the  plain 
and  simple  teachings  of  Jesus  seem  to  have  been 
almost  forgotten;  the  community  was  convulsed; 
men's  faith  was  unsettled;  and  there  was  imminent 
danger  of  an  explosion,  liable  to  shatter  into  frag 
ments  both  the  Puritan  creed  and  the  Puritan  gov 
ernment. 

1  Vol.  i,  213-214. 

2  Vol.  i,  p.  58. 

3  Winthrop,  Vol.  i,  p.  214. 


250  THE  PURITAN  REPUBLIC. 

After  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  banishment  it  was  found 
that  many  in  Boston  were  tainted  with  various  secret 
opinions.  Winthrop  says: 

"Some  of  the  secret  opinions  were  these: 

"That  there  is  no  inherent  righteousness  in  a  child  of 
God. 

"That  neither  absolute  nor  conditional  promises  belong 
to  a  Christian. 

"That  we  are  not  bound  to  the  law,  not  as  a  rule,  etc. 

"That  the  Sabbath  is  but  as  other  days. 

"That  the  soul  is  mortal,  till  it  be  united  to  Christ,  and 
then  it  is  annihilated,  and  the  body  also,  and  a  new  given 
by  Christ. 

"That  there  is  no  resurrection  of  the  body." 

Notwithstanding  the  banishment  of  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son  and  Wheelwright  and  their  followers,  "errors" 
continued  to  thrive,  and  in  May,  1646,  the  General 
Court  entered  upon  its  records  a  long  recital,  setting 
forth  the  necessity  of  establishing  the  right  form  of 
church  government  and  discipline  "by  ye  joynt  & 
publike  agreement  &  consent  of  churches  &  by  ye 
sanction  of  civill  authority,"  which  "must  needs 
greatly  conduce  to  ye  honor  &  glory  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  &  to  ye  settleing  &  safety  of  church  & 
Commonwealth,"  and  stating  that  differences  of  opin 
ion  had  arisen  about  infant  baptism  and  other  ques 
tions,  about  which  "  all  members  of  the  churches 
(though  godly  &  faithfull)  are  not  yet  clearly  sat 
isfied,"  and  appointed  "a  publike  assembly  of  the 
elders  &  other  messengers  of  the  severall  churches 

i,  p.  253. 


'RISE    AND    FALL   OF    THE    THEOCRACY. 

within  this  jurisdiction,  who  may  come  together  & 
meete  at  Cambridge  upon  the  first  day  of  September 
now  next  ensueing,  thereto  discusse,  dispute  & cleare 
up,  by  the  word  of  God,  such  questions  of  church 
government  &  discipline  in  ye  things  afore  mentioned, 
or  any  other  as  they  shall  thinke  needfull  &  meete." 
Later  the  synod  was  also  requested  "to  set  fourth  a 
confession  of  ye  faith  we  do  professe  touching  ye 
doctrinall  part  of  religion  also."2 

This  synod  promulgated  in  1648  what  is  known  as 
the  Cambridge  Platform,  adopting  the  Westminster 
Confession,  and  declaring  that  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
civil  magistrates  to  suppress  heresy.  The  result  of 
their  deliberations  was  embodied  in  a  book  " inti 
tuled  a  Platforme  of  Church  Discipline  out  of  the 
Word  of  God  &c,"  and  in  1649  this,  by  order  of  the 
General  Court,  was  "commended  to  the  judicious  & 
pious  consideration  of  the  severall  churches  within 
this  jurisdiction,"  and  having  been  approved,  was 
adopted  in  i65i.3  This  event  is  supposed  by  Mr. 
Fiske4  to  have  completed  the  theocratic  organization 
of  the  Puritan  commonwealth. 

Still  erroneous  opinions  and  pestilent  heresies  con 
tinued  to  spring  up.  Five  synods  were  held  between 
1637  and  i68o,5  "for  the  preventing  schisms,  heresies, 
profaneness,  and  the  establishment  of  churches  in 
one  faith  and  order  of  the  Gospel";  but  the  last 
came  no  nearer  accomplishing  its  purpose  than  did 

1  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  2,  pp.  154-8. 

2  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  2,  p.  200. 
8  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  2,  p.  285. 

4  Beginnings  of  New  Eng.,  p.  177. 
6  Palfrey,  Vol.  3,  330,  note  2. 


252  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

the  first.  All  utterly  failed  to  make  men  think 
alike  in  their  religious  belief.  Not  one  heretical  sect 
had  been  rooted  out;  and  new  ones  were  springing 
up  on  every  hand,  until  it  must  have  seemed  to  the 
Puritan  clergy  that  Satan  himself  had  conjured  out 
of  the  lower  depths,  to  perplex  and  terrify  their  souls, 
the  innumerable  hosts  of  heresies  that  swarmed  about 
them. 

/  Again,  commerce  was  expanding,  both  domestic 
and  foreign.  Commercial  transactions  could  not  be 
carried  on  in  strict  accord  with  Mr.  Cotton's  " rules 
for  trading,"  and  the  commercial  interests  were  con 
tinually  clashing  with  the  harsh  restrictions  imposed 
by  the  Theocracy  upon  trade  and  commercial  inter 
course. 

Another  potent  factor,  antagonistic  to  the  Theoc 
racy,  was  the  growth  of  republican  ideas.  The  seed 
had  been  planted  and  a  republic  grew  even  in  the 
shade  of  the  Theocracy.  How  it  grew  will  be  shown 
in  subsequent  chapters. 

v  "  Certain  it  is  that  a  great  majority  of  the  people  in 
Massachusetts  were  opposed  to  the  rigorous  measures 
against  the  Baptists  and  the  Quakers.  It  is  said  that 
Winthrop,  upon  his  death-bed,1  when  pressed  by 
Dudley  to  sign  an  order  for  the  banishment  of  some 
heterodox  person,  refused,  saying  that  "he  had  done 
too  much  of  that  work  already." 

So  that,  even  if  the  charter  had  not  been  revoked  and 
if  there  had  been  no  further  royal  interference,  it  is 
probable  that  the  Theocracy  could  not  have  lasted 
many  more  years. 

1  Hutchinson,  Vol.  i,  p.  142. 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE    THEOCRACY.  253 

But  the  revocation  of  the  charter,  which  ended  the 
commonwealth,  also  gave  a  death  blow  to  the  Theoc 
racy.  Its  power  was  broken  and  shattered  never 
again  to  be  restored,  and  the  dream  of  a  Biblical 
commonwealth  vanished  forever. 

It  would  be  unjust  to  the  ministers  to  assume  that 
they  were  all  fanatics  5  still  more  unjust  to  say  that 
they  were  not  sincere;  it  would  be  preposterous  to 
suppose  that  they  were  such  hideous  monsters,  such 
fiendish  hypocrites,  as  they  have  been  painted  by 
Oliver  and  Brooks  Adams.  The  latter  in  speaking 
of  the  connection  of  the  ministers  with  the  witchcraft 
delusion1  says: 

"Although,  at  a  moment  when  the  panic  had  got  beyond 
control,  even  the  most  ultra  of  the  clergy  had  been  forced 
by  their  own  danger  to  counsel  moderation,  the  conserva 
tives  were  by  no  means  ready  to  abandon  their  potent  allies 
from  the  lower  world ;  the  power  they  gave  was  too  alluring. 

*  *  *  They  therefore  saw  the  constant  acquittals,  the 
abandonment  of  prosecutions  and  the  growth  of  incredulity 
with  regret.  *  *  *  Men  with  such  beliefs  and  lured 
onward  by  such  temptations,  were  incapable  of  letting  the 
tremendous  power  superstition  gave  them  slip  from  their 
grasp  without  an  effort  on  their  own  behalf,  and  accordingly 
it  was  not  long  before  the  Mathers  were  once  more  at  work." 

Here  is  a  distinct  and  deliberate  charge  that  the 
"priests"  were  malignant,  hypocritical  human  fiends, 
willing,  in  order  to  strengthen  their  own  power,  to 
encourage  belief  in  a  wretched  delusion  which  was 
making  the  land  red  with  the  blood  of  its  victims  and 
was  sapping  the  very  foundations  of  the  community. 

1  Emancipation  of  Massachusetts,  pp.  230-32. 


254  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

And  this  charge  is  made  without  any  evidence  to 
support  it,  other  than  the  isolated  expressions  of  a 
few,  not  sufficient  to  justify  so  shocking  an  accusa 
tion  even  against  them. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add  that  the  frightful 
specters  which  Mr.  Adams  sees  are  not  real  human 
beings;  they  are  "the  gloomy  companions  of  a  dis 
eased  imagination,"  conjured  up  by  some  frenzy 
which  Junius  characterizes  as  "the  melancholy  mad 
ness  of  poetry  without  its  inspiration." 

We  ought  never  to  forget  that  after  the  fall  of  the 
commonwealth,  when  Massachusetts  lay  prostrate 
and  helpless  under  the  feet  of  Andros,  the  five  Puri 
tan  ministers  of  Boston,  to  quote  the  striking  language 
of  Mr.  Foote,1  "were  the  steel  point  of  the  spear 
which  Massachusetts  held  steadily  before  her  breast." 
Foremost  of  them  all  was  Increase  Mather.  Nor 
should  we  forget  that,  from  that  time  until  the  Rev 
olution,  the  New  England  clergy  stood  fast  by  the 
side  of  the  people  in  their  struggle  for  independence. 
The  clergv  was  never  subdued,  and  from  New  Eng 
land  pulpits  there  never  failed  to  come  inspiration 
to  the  people  and  defiance  to  their  oppressors. 

Dr.  Ellis  says,  and  rightly,  too,  that,  in  forming 
our  conclusions  concerning  the  religious  and  political 
persecutions  by  the  Puritans  of  the  commonwealth 
period,  we  should  judge  them  by  the  ideas  of  the 
age  in  which  they  lived,  and  not  by  the  ideas  of  re 
ligious  and  political  toleration  which  are  the  product 
of  centuries  of  thought  and  experience.  Mr.  Charles 
Francis  Adams  meets  this  argument  by  the  assertion 

1  Rise  of  Dissenting  Faiths,  Mem.  Hist,  of  Boston,  Vol.  i,  p.  205. 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE    THEOCRACY.  255 

that  it  is  illogical  to  apply  it  in  favor  of  men  who  ad 
vocated  religious  and  political  toleration  for  them 
selves  on  the  east  side  of  the  Atlantic,  but  denied  it 
to  others  on  the  west  side.  The  impression  evi 
dently  sought  to  be  conveyed  by  Mr.  Adams  is,  that 
the  Puritans  themselves  were  hypocritical,  or  at  least 
inconsistent. 

But  the  Puritans  made  no  claim  to  being  the 
champions  of  religious  and  political  toleration,  as  we 
now  understand  these  terms,  on  either  side  of  the 
Atlantic.  They  did  not  affirm  that  the  state  or  the 
church  should  tolerate  political  or  religious  heresies, 
on  the  ground  that  men  had  a  right  to  entertain 
them  and  to  advocate  them,  even  though  they  were 
heresies. 

We  of  this  age  and  country  generally  concede  that 
a  man  may  believe  and  advocate  what  doctrines  he 
pleases,  however  erroneous  we  may  deem  them,  be 
cause,  without  this  concession,  we  can  not  have  free 
speech  and  a  free  press;  just  as  we  allow  every  man 
to  vote  as  he  pleases,  because,  otherwise,  we  can  not 
have  a  free  ballot.  But  in  the  age  in  which  they 
lived  neither  the  Puritans  nor  any  other  people  were 
familiar  with  such  exalted  ideas  of  religious  and 
political  toleration.  These  are  the  product  of  ages, 
welded  in  the  fires  of  persecution  and  tempered  by 
the  blood  of  countless  martyrs. 

The  Puritans  did  not  pretend  that  the  English  gov 
ernment  ought  to  tolerate  their  opinions,  regardless 
of  what  they  might  be.  They  fully  and  sincerely 
believed,  as  it  was  then  almost  universally  believed 
in  England  and  in  all  the  American  colonies,  that  re- 


256  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

ligious  and  political  heresies  should  be  put  down,  and 
that,  in  putting  them  down,  it  was  justifiable  to  in 
flict  the  last  penalty  of  the  law.  If  they  could  have 
been  convinced  that  their  own  opinions  were  errone 
ous,  they  would  have  conceded  fully  the  right  of  state 
and  church  to  forbid  the  advocacy  of  them.  What 
they  maintained  was,  that  it  was  wrong  for  the  English 
government  to  punish  their  religious  views,  not  be 
cause  it  had  no  right  to  punish  men  for  advocating 
heretical  views  but  because  their  views  were  not 
heretical,  and  they  asserted  for  themselves,  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic,  the  right  to  punish  the  persons 
whom  they  did  punish  for  their  religious  views,  be 
cause,  as  they  believed,  such  views  'were  heretical, 
and  dangerous  to  their  church  and  state.  In  other 
words,  shortly  stated,  the  Puritans  conceded  the  right 
-to  suppress  heresies,  and  in  exercising  it  they  arrogated 
no  greater  authority  to  themselves  than  they  con 
ceded  to  others.  But  they  contended  that  the  opin 
ions  which  they  themselves  entertained,  and  for 
which  they  were  punished  in  England,  were  not 
heresies,  while  the  opinions  of  those  who  oppressed 
and  opposed  them  were  heresies. 

So  while  the  Puritans,  as  we  now  look  at  the 
matter,  were  wrong  in  these  persecutions,  they  were 
not  inconsistent,  and  to  their  mistakes  and  faults, 
grievous  as  they  were,  we  should  not  add  the  sin  of 
hypocrisy.  Whatever  else  they  were,  they  were  not 
hypocrites.  They  did  not  " devour  widows'  houses 
and  for  a -pretence  make  long  prayers."  They  were 
intensely  earnest  in  all  their  religious  and  political 
convictions.  Among  them,  undoubtedly,  were  some 


RISE   AND    FALL   OF   THE   THEOCRACY.  257 

who  could  stand  by  without  flinching  and  see  an 
other  burned  at  the  stake  for  his  opinions;  but  these 
same  men  would  unhesitatingly  have  taken  the 
victim's  place  in  vindication  of  their  own.  The 
death  of  the  Rev.  Hugh  Peter  illustrates  a  type  of 
Puritan  heroism  that  was  not  rare.  He  was  one  of  the 
early  colonists  in  Massachusetts  and  took  an  active 
part  in  the  trial  of  Ann  Hutchinson.  After  residing 
seven  years  in  the  colony,  he  returned  to  England 
and  became  one  of  the  staunchest  of  Cromwell's 
supporters  in  the  civil  war.  He  was  prominent  in 
the  army  and  stood  armed  on  the  scaffold  at  the  exe 
cution  of  Archbishop  Laud.  After  the  restoration  of 
Charles  II,  he  was  tried,  convicted  and  sentenced  to 
be  executed  for  treason.  John  Coke,  who  had  re 
ceived  the  same  sentence,  was  executed  first,  and  in 
the  presence  of  Peter  was  butchered  with  all  the 
diabolical  art  of  the  age.  He  was  first  hanged, 
then  cut  down  alive,  disembowled,  his  head  cut  off 
and  his  body  quartered.  The  executioner,  reeking 
with  blood,  after  all  this  had  been  accomplished  in 
full  view  of  Peter,  turned  to  him  and  asked  him 
with  savage  glee:  "Mr.  Peter,  how  like  you  that 
work?"  Undaunted,  he  replied:  "You  have  butch 
ered  one  of  the  servants  of  God  before  my  eyes  and 
have  forced  me  to  see  it  in  order  to  terrify  and  dis 
courage  me;  but  God  has  permitted  it  for  my  sup 
port  and  encouragement,"  and  he  submitted  to 
his  own  doom  with  unflinching  fortitude.  Such  was 
what  might  be  called  the  heroism  of  the  intolerance 
of  that  age,  the  only  quality  it  had  upon  which  we, 

PUR.  REP.— 17 


258  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

in  this  age,  can  base  even  a  feeble  apology  for  it.  Of 
whatever  there  was  heroic  in  it  the  Puritans  pre 
sented  the  highest  types. 

If  they  were  not  in  advance  of  the  times,  they 
were  not  behind  them,  in  their  views  of  religious 
and  political  toleration,  and  we  shall  fall  into  a  griev 
ous  error  if  we  suppose  that  all  the  religious  intoler 
ance  and  bigotry  of  that  age  were  concentrated  in 
Massachusetts  during  the  period  of  the  common 
wealth.  Divesting  ourselves  of  either  sympathy  or 
prejudice,  we  need  not  be  surprised  to  find  that  the 
idea  of  religious  and  political  toleration  had  not 
made  much  headway  among  the  early  Puritans.  It 
was  an  age  of  religious  and  political  intolerance. 

The  history  of  the  1 7th  century  and  of  the  preced 
ing  centuries  presents  a  frightful  picture  of  religious 
.persecutions.  In  the  picture  there  are  always  a  gal- 
slows,  a  hangman,  and  a  victim.  The  figures  at  the 
gallows  change  every  moment  like  those  in  a  kaleido 
scope.  Catholics,  Protestants,  Puritans,  Quakers, 
Baptists,  religious  martyrs  of  every  creed,  appear 
and  disappear  in  endless  succession.  The  hangman 
and  the  victim  seem  to  be  continually  changing  places. 
The  gallows  alone  remains  fixed.  It  never  changes 
and  the  hanging  never  stops. 

In  justice  to  the  Puritans  we  should  bear  in  mind 
that  most  of  the  other  American  colonies,  no  matter 
by  whom  settled  or  controlled,  were  equally  intoler 
ant.  The  Quakers  were  persecuted  almost  every 
where  except  in  Rhode  Island  and  Pennsylvania.  So 
late  as  1660,  a  law  of  Maryland,  styled  Quaker 
preachers  " vagabonds,"  and  authorized  them  to  be 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE    THEOCRACY.  259 

apprehended  and  whipped.  Baptists  fared  little 
better  anywhere  than  did  the  Quakers.  They  were 
persecuted  in  all  the  colonies  and  enjoyed  no  freedom 
except  in  Rhode  Island,  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware. 
New  York  and  most  of  the  colonies  had  laws  against  the 
Catholics.  In  1664  we  ^n<^  tne  Maryland  assembly, 
in  a  law  against  blasphemy,  including  in  a  general 
sweep,  " Schismatic,  Idolater,  Puritan,  Lutheran, 
Calvinist,  Anabaptist,  Brownist,  Antinomian,  Bar- 
rowist,  Roundhead,  etc."1 

If  the  Quakers  were  not  hanged  in  Virginia,  it  was 
not  because  of  the  leniency  of  the  law-makers,  but 
was  owing  probably  to  the  fact  that  none  who  were 
banished  ventured  to  return.  The  Virginia  act, 
passed  in  1660,  was  as  follows:2 

"An  Act  for  the  suppressing  the  Quakers. 

''Whereas  there  is  an  unreasonable  and  turbulent  sort  of 
people,  comonly  called  Quakers,  who  contrary  to  the 
law  do  dayly  gather  together  unto  them  unlaw'll  Assem 
blies  and  congregations  of  people  teaching  and  publishing, 
lies,  miracles,  false  visions,  prophecies  and  doctrines,  which 
have  influence  upon  the  comunities  of  men  both  ecclesias- 
ticall  and  civil  endeavouring  and  attemping  thereby  to  de 
stroy  religion,  lawes,  comunities  and  all  bonds  of  civil 
societie,  leaveing  it  arbitrarie  to  everie  vaine  and  vitious  per 
son  whether  men  shall  be  safe,  lawes  established,  offenders 
punished,  and  Governours  rule,  hereby  disturbing  the  pub- 
lique  peace  and  just  interest,  to  prevent  and  restraine  which 
mischief e,  It  is  enacted,  That  no  master  or  comander  of 
any  shipp  or  other  vessell  do  bring  into  this  collonie  any 

1  Dillon's  Oddities  of  Colonial  Legislation,  21-84;  Hildreth's  History 
United  States,  Vol.  i,  pp.  514,  519;  Dr.  Hurst  on  Religious  Develop' 
tnent,  in  First  Century  of  the  Republic,  473. 

1  Hening's  Statutes  at  Large,  Vol.  I,  pp.  532-3. 


260  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

person  or  persons  called  Quakers,  under  the  penalty  of  one 
hundred  pounds  sterling  to  be  leavied  upon  him  and  his 
estate  by  order  from  the  Governour  and  Council  or  the  com- 
issioners  in  the  severall  counties  where  such  shipps  shall 
arrive,  That  all  such  Quakers  as  have  beene  questioned  or 
shall  hereafter  arrive  shall  be  apprehended  wheresoever  they 
shall  be  found  and  they  be  imprisoned  without  baile  or  main- 
prize  till  they  do  abjure  this  country  or  putt  in  security  with 
all  speed  to  depart  the  collonie  and  not  to  returne  again : 
And  if  any  should  dare  to  presume  to  returne  hither  after 
such  departure  to  be  proceeded  against  as  contemners  of 
the  lawes  and  magistracy  and  punished  accordingly,  and 
caused  again  to  depart  the  country,  And  if  they  should  the 
third  time  be  so  audacious  and  impudent  as  to  returne 
hither  to  be  proceeded  against  as  ffelons.  That  noe  person 
shall  entertain  any  of  the  Quakers  that  have  heretofore  been 
questioned  by  the  Governour  and  Council,  or  which  shall 
hereafter  be  questioned,  nor  permit  in  or  near  his  house  any 
Assemblies  of  Quakers  in  the  like  penalty  of  one  hundred 
pound  sterling,  That  comissioners  and  officers  are  hereby 
required  and  authorized  as  they  will  answer  the  contrary  at 
their  perill  to  take  notice  of  this  act  to  see  it  fully  effected 
and  executed,  And  that  no  person  do  presume  on  their 
peril  to  dispose  or  publish  their  bookes,  pamphlets  or  li- 
bells  bearing  the  title  of  their  tenents  and  opinions." 

Other  laws  were  enacted  in  Virginia  making  it  a 
finable  offense  to  attend  Quaker  meetings,  to  bring 
Quakers  to  the  colony  or  to  entertain  them  after  their 
arrival.  In  1663  Mr.  John  Porter,  one  of  the  bur 
gesses  in  the  Virginia  House  of  Representatives,  was 
expelled  for  divers  offenses,  the  chief  of  which  was 
that  he  was  "loving  to  the  Quakers  and  stood  well 
affected  towards  them."1 

1  Hening's  Statutes  at  Large,  Vol.  2,  p.  198. 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE    THEOCRACY.  26 1 

There  was  also  a  barbarous  provision  in  the  Vir 
ginia  laws,  to  the  effect  that  if  any  Quaker  was  un 
able  to  pay  a  fine  assessed  against  him  for  violation 
of  these  laws,  "then  it  shalbe  lawfull  to  levy  and 
recover  the  same  from  the  rest  of  the  ^Hiakers  or 
other  seperatists,  or  any  one  of  them  then  present, 
that  are  of  greater  ability  to  pay  the  said  fine  or 
fines."1 

The  Virginia  law  against  Anabaptists  made  it 
a  finable  offense  for  any  one  to  refuse  to  have  his 
children  baptized. 

Nor  would  the  Puritans  have  fared  any  better  in 
Virginia  than  the  Episcopalians  fared  in  Massachu 
setts.  Conformity  to  the  Church  of  England  was 
enjoined  by  law,  and  absence  from  church  services 
was  a  finable  offense.  Another  law  expressly  re 
quired  "that  the  Gov.  and  Counsel  do  take  care 
that  all  nonconformists  upon  notice  of  them  shall 
be  compelled  to  depart  the  collony  with  all  con- 
veniencie."2  Daniel  Gookin  was  driven  from  Vir 
ginia  for  nonconformity  and  went  to  Boston.  In 
1648  two  Puritan  ministers,  who  went  from  Massa 
chusetts  to  Virginia,  were  banished  from  the  latter 
state  by  Governor  Berkley  because  they  would  not  con 
form  to  the  Church  of  England.3  Others  were  fined 
and  imprisoned  and  nearly  all  were  driven  out  of  the 
colony  and  compelled  to  seek  refuge  in  Maryland 
and  New  England.4  Indeed,  so  late  as  1745,  the 
Virginia  judges  were  charging  grand  juries  to  find 

1  Hening's  Statutes  at  Large,  Vol.  2,  p.  181. 

2  Hening's  Stattites  at  Large,  Vol.  I,  p.  277. 
8Winthrop,  Vol.  2,  p.  334. 

4Cooke's  History  Virginia,  173. 


262  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

bills  of  indictment  against  Methodists,  Moravians  and 
New  Light  Presbyterians.1 

Even  those  who  had  themselves  been  banished 
from  Massachusetts  and  who,  at  the  time,  complained 
most  bitterly  of  the  "intolerance"  from  which  they 
had  suffered,  do  not  seem  to  have  been  any  more 
tolerant  to  those  who  at  a  later  period  differed  from 
them.  This  is  shown  by  the  experience  of  Samuel 
Gorton,  the  Familist.  After  leaving  Massachusetts 
he  went  to  Plymouth,  and,  having  been  forced  to 
leave  there,  he  went  to  Rhode  Island,  where,  by  or 
der  of  Coddington,  the  governor,  who  had  himself 
left  Massachusetts  on  account  of  the  alleged  intoler 
ance  of  the  authorities,  he  was  first  imprisoned  and 
then  whipped.  He  then  sought  shelter  at  Provi 
dence,  which  was  granted  by  Roger  Williams,  but 
he  had  not  been  there  long  until  divers  of  the  inhab 
itants  sent  a  petition  to  the  Massachusetts  authorities 
"to  lend  them  a  neighbor-like  helping  hand  to  ease 
them  of  their  burden,"  for  the  reason  that  "the  said 
Gorton  nor  his  company  are  not  fit  persons  to  be  re 
ceived  in  and  made  members  of  such  a  body  in  so 
weak  a  state  as  our  town  is  in  at  present."2 

When  we  listen  to  the  bitter,  and  oftentimes  flip 
pant,  denunciations  of  Puritan  intolerance  we  are  apt 
to  forget  that  the  progress  of  religious  and  political 
toleration  is  very  slow,  with  a  constant  tendency  to  a 
relapse  into  intolerance  of  the  rights  of  the  minority, 
when  the  power  passes  into  the  hands  of  a  large 
majority  and  the  persons  composing  it  are  all  of  one 

1  Dillon's  Oddities  of  Colonial  Legislation,  267-269. 

*  Palfrey,  Vol.  2,  pp.  117-119;  Hutchinson,  Vol.  I,  pp.  112-113. 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE   THEOCRACY.  263 

way  of  thinking.  The  progress  of  religious  and 
political  toleration  is  due,  not  so  much  to  advanced 
and  liberal  ideas  of  the  right  of  others  to  differ  from 
us  in  religious  and  political  belief,  as  it  is  to  the  grow 
ing  conviction  that  we  must  concede  this  right  to 
others  in  order  to  secure  it  for  ourselves.  It  was  not 
Thomas  Jefferson  and  the  infidels  who  prevented  the 
recognition  of  religion  in  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States.  There  were  people  then,  as  now, 
who  clamored  to  have  "God  in  the  constitution." 
But  every  denomination  that  had  suffered  from 
religious  persecution  was  opposed  to  taking  any 
steps  which  might  be  the  initiative  to  the  renewal  of 
such  persecutions,  and  they  feared  that  such  a  pro 
vision  in  the  constitution  would  lead  to  the  establish 
ment  by  the  government  of  the  creed  of  some  other 
denomination.  In  Virginia  the  most  vigorous  pro 
tests  against  levying  a  general  assessment  for  the 
support  of  religion  were  from  the  Presbyterians,  the 
Baptists,  and  the  Quakers.1 

It  is  indeed  very  easy  to  persuade  ourselves  that 
another  man's  "ism"  is  fanaticism,  and  it  is  very 
hard  for  us  to  distinguish  between  rightful  repression 
of  error  and  the  persecution  of  those  who  differ  from 
us  in  what  we  consider  vital  principles. 

Religious  and  political  intolerance  in  this  country 
did  not  disappear  with  the  decline  of  Puritanism. 
More  than  two  hundred  years  after  the  persecution 
of  the  Quakers  in  Massachusetts  there  was  a  meeting 
in  Boston  of  some  respectable  and  pious  women,  en 
gaged  in  what  they  conscientiously  believed  to  be  a 

^l  Dr.  Hurst  in  First  Century  of  the  Republic,  479. 


264  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

philanthropic  work.  They  had  read  a  portion  of  the 
Bible  and  had  offered  np  a  prayer  to  God,  when 
their  place  of  meeting  was  surrounded  by  a  howl 
ing,  furious  mob  which  dispersed  the  assembly. 
A  man  in  sympathy  with  the  object  of  the  meet 
ing  was  present.  In  those  days  he  was  called  a 
fanatic.  With  wonderful  persistence  and  devotion 
to  principle  he  had  established  a  newspaper  in  Boston, 
of  which  he  was  the  chief  editor,  printer,  and  car 
rier.  The  principles  he  advocated  did  not  please  the 
mob  and  it  thirsted  for  his  blood.  Having  discovered 
him,  the  mob  seized  him,  tore  his  clothes  from  him, 
and  dragged  him  through  the  streets  with  a  rope 
around  his  neck.  Finally  he  was  rescued  by  the 
mayor  and  some  citizens  and  was  put  into  the  Lever- 
ett  street  jail  to  save  him  from  being  murdered. 
Upon  the  walls  he  wrote  an  inscription  telling  that 
he  "was  put  into  this  cell  on  Monday  afternoon  Oc 
tober  21,  1835,  to  save  him  from  the  violence  of  a 
respectable  and  influential  mob  who  sought  to  destroy 
him  for  preaching  the  abominable  and  dangerous 
doctrine  that  all  men  are  created  equal,  and  that  all 
oppression  is  odious  in  the  sight  of  God." 

What  was  the  object  of  this  mob?  It  was  to  sup 
press  the  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the  press,  that 
human  slavery  might  be  perpetuated.  Was  the 
action  of  the  mob  approved?  Most  certainly,  and 
by  a  very  large  number  of  people  of  the  United 
States,  who,  in  different  parts  of  the  Union,  en 
gaged  in  similar  and  even  more  atrocious  outrages. 
This  was  long  after  the  "emancipation"  of  Massa 
chusetts  is  supposed  to  have  been  accomplished.  It 


RISE   AND    FALL    OF   THE    THEOCRACY.  265 

is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  the  members  of  the 
mob,  their  aiders,  abettors  and  sympathizers,  in  Mas 
sachusetts  and  elsewhere  in  the  United  States,  were 
not  Puritans.  The  name  of  the  man  who  was  the 
object  of  the  mob's  vengeance  does  not  "stand  in  a 
shadow."  Clarum  et  venerabile  nomen.1 

Even  the  Quakers  have  not  always  been  as  toler 
ant  as  might  be  supposed  from  their  denunciation  of 
the  intolerance  of  the  Puritans.  It  seems  that  one 
of  the  first  laws  they  passed  in  Rhode  Island,  after 
they  had  obtained  a  charter  in  1663,  was  a  law  ex 
cluding  Roman  Catholics  from  the  right  to  vote  and 
to  hold  office.2 

A  still  more  significant  and  humiliating  record  of 
their  attitude  towards  the  Abolitionists  is  furnished 
by  the  records  in  Indiana.  In  that  state  in  1842, 
when  the  virus  of  slavery  had  well-nigh  poisoned  the 
whole  nation,  Abolitionism  became  unpopular,  even 
among  the  Quakers. 

"Strange  as  it  may  seem,"  says  Mr.  Coffin,8  "to  the 
rising  generation  who  read  the  part  of  Friend's  Discipline 
relating  to  slavery  and  who  would  naturally  suppose  that 
they  would  give  their  support  to  every  movement  opposing 
slavery,  there  was  a  spirit  of  opposition  to  Abolitionism  at 
tributable  to  various  causes,  which  had  almost  impercepti 
bly  crept  in  among  Friends,  and  which  manifested  itself  in 
the  yearly  meetings."  " We  were  advised,"  he  says,  "not 
to  unite  in  abolition  societies  nor  to  open  our  meeting-houses 
for  abolition  meetings.  This  took  place  at  the  yearly  meet 
ing  in  the  fall  of  1842.  These  advices  were  sent  down  to 

1  Wilson's  .Rise and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power,  Vol.  I,  p.  284. 

2  Hildreth's  His.  United  States,  Vol.  i,  p.  461;   Palfrey,  Vol.4,  P-  472- 

3  Reminiscences  of  Levi  Coffin,  pp.  230-232. 


266  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

quarterly  and  monthly  meetings  with  a  committee  to  see 
that  they  were  carried  out.  Thus  we  had  no  alternative ; 
we  must  separate  or  be  disowned  for  opposing  the  advice  of 
the  body,  as  they  called  it."  They  were  not  hanged,  it  is 
true,  nor  banished  from  this  land,  but  they  were  banished 
from  the  society.  "We  were  proscribed,"  continues  Mr. 
Coffin,  "for  simply  adhering  to  what  we  believed  to  be  our 
Christian  duty,  as  consistent  members  of  the  Society  of 
Friends  in  regard  to  the  anti-slavery  movement  in  uniting 
with  others  in  anti-slavery  societies,  opening  our  meeting 
houses  for  anti-slavery  meetings  to  plead  the  cause  of  the 
oppressed,  and  laboring  for  the  spread  of  anti-slavery  truth 
in  every  way  we  could,  consistent  with  our  profession  as 
Christians,  we  asked  only  liberty  of  conscience — freedom  to 
act  according  to  these  conscientious  convictions." 

This  testimony  of  Mr.  Coffin  is  fully  corroborated 
by  Mr.  George  W.  Julian,  in  a  paper  entitled,  "The 
Rank  of  Charles  Osborn  as  an  Anti-Slavery  Pioneer."1 
Osborn  and  several  others  were  proscribed  and 
driven  out  and  spoken  of  as  "gone,  fallen,  and  out 
of  the  life,"  for  persisting  in  the  advocacy  of  aboli 
tion  sentiments. 

"It  will  probably  be  news  to  thousands,"  says  Mr.  Julian, 
"that  the  Quakers  thus  succumbed  to  the  power  of  slavery; 
but  such  is  the  melancholy  fact,  and  they  have  no  right  to 
escape  history.  Among  the  rank  and  file  of  the  body  in 
Indiana  there  were  doubtless  very  many  true  anti-slavery 
men ;  but  at  the  time  of  which  I  speak  the  chief  rulers  be 
lieved  in  colonization  and  gradual  emancipation.  They  took 
special  pains,  in  dealing  with  legislative  bodies,  slaveholders 
and  the  public,  to  inform  them  that  they  had  no  connection, 

1  Ind.  His.  Soc.  Pub.,  Vol.  2,  pp.  264-265. 


RISE    AND    FALL    OF    THE    THEOCRACY.  267 

in  any  way,  with  abolitionism.  They  so  assured  Henry 
Clay  while  in  Richmond.  Leading  members  frequently  re 
iterated  the  charge  that  abolitionists  had  'put  back  the  cause 
of  emancipation' ;  and  some  of  them  insisted  that  aiding 
slaves  on  their  way  to  Canada  involved  men  in  the  crime  of 
man-stealing.  Many  of  the  rulers  of  the  denomination  in 
the  eastern  as  well  as  the  western  states  had  'their  ears 
filled  with  cotton.'  They  discoursed  very  piously  about  the 
attempt  of  abolitionists  '  to  abolish  slavery  in  their  own 
strength,'  and  argued  that  paying  men  for  anti-slavery  lect 
ures  was  opposed  to  the  Quaker  testimony  against  a  'hire 
ling  ministry.'  Ministers,  elders  and  overseers  took  the 
lead  in  these  reactionary  proceedings ;  and  it  was  one  of 
the  curiosities  of  human  nature  to  find  the  followers  of  John 
Woolman  and  Anthony  Benezett  laboring  with  their  breth 
ren  for  attending  anti-slavery  meetings,  closing  the  doors  of 
their  churches  against  anti-slavery  lectures,  and  setting  up 
a  system  of  espionage  over  the  publication  of  anti-slavery 
articles  by  members  of  the  society.  Such  men  as  Isaac  T. 
Hopper,  among  the  Hicksite  Friends,  and  Arnold  Buffum, 
among  the  Orthodox,  were  disowned  for  their  fidelity  to  the 
slave.  This  work  of  proscription  was  generally  based  upon 
some  false  pretense,  as  was  the  fact  in  the  case  of  Mr. 
Buffum.  In  dealing  with  Mr.  Osborn  and  his  associates, 
the  Indiana  yearly  meeting  did  its  best  to  cover  up  the  ugly 
fact  that  they  were  degraded  on  account  of  their  anti-slavery 
principles.  With  great  dexterity  in  the  use  of  scripture, 
much  circumlocution,  and  a  cunning  and  tergiversation  that 
would  have  won  the  heart  of  Talleyrand  or  Loyola,  they 
played  their  game  of  ecclesiastical  tyranny;  but  the  facts 
of  the  transaction,  as  now  seen  in  the  clear  perspective  of 
history,  leave  them  perfectly  unmasked.  I  have  carefully 
examined  the  documents  and  papers  pertaining  to  the  con 
troversy  on  both  sides,  and  speak  from  the  record.  Strange 
as  it  may  seem,  the  claims  of  justice  were  |so  completely 


268  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

subordinated  to  the  peace  and  unity  of  the  society  that 
even  a  deputation  of  English  Friends,  who  came  over 
as  mediators  in  this  trouble,  utterly  refused  to  look  into  the 
merits  of  the  controversy,  and  insisted  upon  the  uncon 
ditional  return  of  the  seceding  members  to  the  body  which 
had  so  flagrantly  trampled  upon  their  rights.  Humanity 
was  forgotten  in  the  service  of  a  sect,  and  Quakerism  itself 
disowned  by  its  priesthood." 

All  this  testimony  goes  to  prove  that  the  Quakers, 
with  the  awful  example  of  Puritan  intolerance,  and 
the  added  advantage  of  the  ideas  and  teachings  of  two 
hundred  years  of  civilization,  so  late  as  1842,  had 
made  no  such  marked  advance  over  the  Puritans  in 
the  direction  of  religious  and  political  toleration  as 
we  might  be  led  to  expect  from  their  opportunities 
and  professions  and  from  the  vigor  with  which  they 
abuse  their  former  persecutors. 


XII 


PLANTING  THE  SEED  OF  A  REPUBLIC;  DEVEL 
OPMENT  OF  THE  TOWN  SYSTEM  AND  LOCAL 
SELF-GOVERNMENT 

THE  distinguishing  feature  in  the  government  of 
the  Massachusetts  colony  was  the  town  system. 

The  idea  of  local  self-government  has  become  a 
fixed  and  marked  feature  of  American  government. 
A  few  years  ago  we  saw  15,000  persons  moving  into 
Oklahoma  Territory  one  night,  an  election  held  at  4 
p.  M.  on  the  next  day  and  all  the  machinery  of  local 
government  put  in  motion.  That  could  not  have 
been  accomplished  anywhere  in  the  world  except  in 
the  United  States,  and  its  accomplishment  is  one  of 
the  results  of  the  American  principle  of  local  self- 
government,  which,  if  it  did  not  originate  in  New 
England,  was  developed  sooner  and  more  fully  there 
than  anywhere  else. 

Local  governments  of  one  kind  or  another  had 
existed  for  centuries  in  England  and  in  the  rude  Ger 
manic  tribes.1  Speaking  of  local  self-government  in 
America,  Judge  Cooley  says  that  "the  system  is  one 
which  almost  seems  a  part  of  the  very  nature  of  the 
race  to  which  we  belong,"  and  that  "in  America  the 

1  Howard's  Local  Constitutional  History  of  United  States;  Pomeroy's 
Constitutional  Law,  2d  ed.,  sees.  158-164. 

(269) 


270  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

first  settlers,  as  if  instinctively,  adopted  it  in  their 
forms  of  government."1 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  origin  of  local  self- 
government,  the  form  of  it  which  is  presented  in  the 
New  England  town  governments  undoubtedly  ori 
ginated  there.  Nor  does  the  New  England  town 
system  seem  to  have  been  patterned  after  any  known 
model.  Nothing  like  it  existed  in  England  or  else 
where  in  America. 

Some  have  supposed  that  the  New  England  towns 
were  patterned  after  the  free  cities  of  the  twelfth  cen 
tury  or  the  ancient  Anglo-Saxon  towns.  Others  have 
referred  the  origin  of  the  New  England  town  system 
to  the  signing  of  the  compact  in  the  cabin  of  the  May 
flower.  That  was  indeed  one  of  the  most  striking 
events  in  history.  He  must  be  dead  to  every  noble 
and  generous  impulse  who  can  stand  in  Plymouth's 
Pilgrim  Hall,  surrounded  by  all  the  precious  relics 
of  our  forefathers,  and  look  upon  the  painting  repre 
senting  the  signing  of  the  compact  without  catching 
some  of  the  inspiration  of  the  painter.  We  see  a  little 
company  of  exiles  three  thousand  miles  from  home, 
crowded  in  a  small  and  leaky  vessel,  worn  and  weary 
with  a  voyage  over  stormy  seas,  leaving  kindred  and 
abandoning  forever  their  birth-places  and  seeking  a 
home  in  a  far-off  wilderness.  We  see  men  with 
brave  and  resolute  hearts,  preparing  to  bind  them 
selves  by  solemn  covenant  to  set  up  a  government 
for  the  making  of  "just  and  equal  laws."  It  is  in 
deed  a  spectacle  which  men  will  never  tire  of  praising. 
It  touches  a  chord  in  human  nature  that  will  vibrate 

1  Constitutional  Lim.,  5th  ed.,  227;  see  also  Dillon's  Municipal  Cor 
porations,  Vol,  i,  3d  ed,,  sec,  9, 


PLANTING   THE    SEED    OF   A    REPUBLIC.  271 

to  the  end  of  time.  But  after  all  this  has  been  said, 
we  must  say  that  the  signing  of  the  compact  was  not 
the  origin  of  local  self-government  in  America.  It 
did  not  furnish  a  model  of  it,  and  it  is  certain  that  it 
had  not  the  slightest  influence  in  molding  the  town 
governments  of  New  England. 

It  would  seem,  at  first  blush,  as  if  the  New  Eng 
land  town  governments  arose  spontaneously,  but 
we  know  that  there  is  nothing  spontaneous  in  the 
formation  of  government  any  more  than  there  is  in 
nature.  "Men  did  not  wake  on  a  summer  morning, 'r 
to  quote  from  Mr.  Mill,1  "and  find  them  growing." 
This  much  may  be  said,  that  they  were  sui  generis. 
"They  were  not,"  says  Prof.  Joel  Parker,  "founded 
or  modeled  on  precedent." 2  Prof.  Parker  says  further: 

"They  were  not  contrived  in  the  closet,  nor  in  the  hall  of 
the  legislative  assembly,  and  brought  into  existence  with  the 
powers  and  duties  which  we  find  attached  to  them,  by  the 
enactment  of  a  law  for  that  purpose.  They  did  not  burst 
into  mature  life  by  any  previous  contrivance,  but,  like  most 
other  useful  machinery,  they  had  their  origin  in  the  wants 
of  the  time,  and  came  into  existence  by  a  gradual  process 
from  imperfect  beginnings." 

Many  of  the  laws  of  England  would  have  been 
wholly  unsuited  to  the  early  New  England  settie- 

1  Representative  Government. 

8  Paper  on  The  Origin,  Organization  and  Tnjltience  of  the  Toivns  of 
New  England,  read  December,  1865;  Proc.  Mass.  His.  Soc.,  1866-7,  p. 
20;  see  further  as  to  New  England  towns,  Howard's  Local  Constitutional 
History  of  United  States,  Chap,  on  Rise  of  the  Neiv  England 
Town,  pp.  50-99;  Abner  G.  Goodell,  Jr.,  Paper  on  Origin  of  Towns 
in  Massachusetts,  read  February,  1890;  Proc.  Mass.  His.  Soc.,  Vol.  5, 
2d  Ser.,  p.  320. 


272  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

ments.  The  exigencies  of  the  situation  made  it  nec 
essary  to  adopt  many  new  laws  and  regulations. 
Moreover,  each  settlement  was,  to  a  great  extent, 
isolated  from  the  rest.  For  a  long  time  the  means  of 
communication  were  difficult  and  often  dangerous. 
Each  settlement,  therefore,  in  the  nature  of  things, 
was  left  to  devise  a  form  of  local  government  adapted 
to  its  own  wants.  In  the  formation  of  such  a  gov 
ernment  the  settlers  doubtless  had  in  mind  the  prin 
ciples  and  forms  of  local  government  with  which 
they  had  been  familiar  in  England.  Undoubtedly 
they  had  in  mind  the  most  advanced  English  ideas  of 
political  liberty,  and  especially  the  fundamental  prin 
ciples  of  the  English  constitution.  And  it  is  quite 
certain  that  they  copied  largely,  in  the  formation  of 
their  scheme  of  town  government,  from  the  form  o^ 
the  church  government  of  that  branch  of  dissenters 
from  the  established  church  of  England  which  after 
ward  developed  into  the  Congregational  church  in 
this  country.  Indeed  the  common  name  of  "mod 
erator"  was  applied  alike  to  the  presiding  officers  of 
both  town  and  church  meetings. 

The  causes  above  mentioned  were  the  principal  if 
not  the  only  factors  producing  the  system  of  New 
England  town  government. 

However  the  system  of  local  self-government  may 
have  originated,  it  became  a  fixed  feature  of  govern 
ment  long  before  the  adoption  of  any  of  our  consti 
tutions,  national  or  state,  and  it  is  recognized  im- 
pliedly,  if  not  expressly,  in  all  of  them.  The  system 
was  developed  fully  in  the  Massachusetts  common 
wealth.  As  soon  as  towns  began  to  grow  up  the 


PLANTING   THE    SEED    OF   A    REPUBLIC.  273 

necessity  of  some  form  of  local  government  became 
apparent.  The  first  is  said  to  have  been  in  Dor 
chester  where  the  inhabitants  met  on  October  8, 
1633,  and  adopted  the  following: 

"An  agreement  made  by  the  whole  Consent  and  vote  of 
the  Plantation,  made  Moone  day  8th  October  1633.  Im 
primis.  It  is  ordered  that  for  the  Generall  good  and  well 
ordering  of  the  affayres  of  the  plantation,  there  shall  be 
every  Mooneday  before  the  Court  by  eight  of  the  clocke  in 
the  morning  and  presently,  upon  the  beating  of  the  drum  a 
generall  meeting  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  plantation  at  the 
Meeting  House,  there  to  settle  and  sett  downe  such  orders 
as  may  tend  to  the  generall  good  as  aforesayd,  and  every 
man  to  be  bound  thereby  without  gainsay  ing  or  resistance."1 

Twelve  selectmen  were  appointed  to  hold  monthly 
meetings,  with  authority  to  make  orders  subject  to  the 
approval  of  the  plantation. 

The  Dorchester  plan  is  said  to  have  served  as  a 
pattern  for  other  towns,  although  Prof.  Parker  ex 
presses  the  opinion  that  the  plan  of  managing  the 
affairs  of  the  towns  by  selectmen,  which  after 
wards  became  general,  originated  in  Charlestown, 
where 

"In  1635  'in  consideration  of  the  great  trouble  and  charge 
of  the  inhabitants  by  reason  of  the  frequent  meeting  of  the 
townsmen  in  general,  and  that,  by  reeson  of  many  men 
meeting,  things  were  not  so  easily  brought  unto  a  joint 
issue/  they  made  a  compact  by  which  it  was  agreed  by  the 
townsmen  jointly  'that  eleven  men,  with  the  advice  of 

1  Samuel  J.  Barrows,  Dorchester  in  the  Colonial  Period,  i  Mem.  Hist, 
of  Boston,  427. 

PUR.  REP.— 18 


274  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

pastor  and  teacher,  desired  in  any  case  of  conscience,  shall 
entreat  of  all  such  business  as  shall  concern  the  townsmen, 
the  choice  of  officers  excepted ;  and  what  they  or  the 
greater  part  of  them  shall  conclude,  the  rest  of  the  town 
willingly  submit  to  as  their  own  proper  act.'  The  eleven 
persons  thus  chosen  were  'to  continue  in  this  employment 
for  one  year.'  ' 

In  1634  towns  were  authorized  to  select  represent 
atives,  afterward  called  deputies,  to  represent  them 
in  General  Court,1  but  they  were  not  fully  recognized 
and  authorized  to  act  as  separate  local  municipalities 
until  March  3,  1635-6,  when  the  General  Court  made 
the  following  order: 

'  'Whereas  particular  townes  have  many  things  which  con- 
cerne  only  themselves  &  the  ordering  of  their  owne  affaires, 
and  disposeing  of  business  in  their  owne  towne,  it  is  there 
fore  ordered  that  the  ffreemen  of  every  towne,  or  the  major 
parte  of  them  shall  onely  have  power  to  dispose  of  their 
owne  lands  &  woods  with  all  the  prevelidges  &  appurte 
nances  of  the  said  townes,  to  graunt  lotts  &  make  such  orders 
as  may  concerne  the  wellordering  of  their  owne  townes,  not 
repugnant  to  the  lawes  &  orders  here  established  by  the 
Generall  Court,  as  also  to  lay  mulks  &  penaltyes  for  the 
breach  of  theis  orders  &  to  levy  &  distreine  the  same,  not 
exceeding  the  sum  of  2OS ;  also  to  chuse  their  owne  par 
ticular  officers,  as  constables,  surveyors  for  the  high  wayes 
&  the  like." 

This  order  made  further  provisions  for  accounting 
by  the  constables  to  the  General  Court  when  called 
upon  by  it  to  do  so.2  Afterward  this  provision  was 
incorporated  in  the  Body  of  Liberties.3 

1Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  118. 

2 Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  172,  Col.  Laws,  1660-1672,  p.  195. 

3Col.  Laws  1660-1672,  p.  47. 


PLANTING   THE    SEED    OF   A    REPUBLIC.  275 

The  chief  officers  of  the  town  were  the  selectmen, 
who  were  elected  yearly  and  whose  number  was  not 
to  exceed  nine.  These  were  invested  with  extensive 
powers  in  reference  to  ordering  "the  planting  &  pru 
dential  affaires  of  their  Townes,  according  to  instruc 
tions  given  them  in  writing." 

Besides  the  selectmen,  there  was  also  a  town  clerk, 
whose  office  imposed  important  duties.  There  were 
also  commissioners  of  rates,  whose  duties  corre 
sponded  to  those  of  assessors,  highway  surveyors, 
fence  viewers,  and  later  commissioners  for  the  trial 
of  small  causes. 

Chiefly  upon  the  marshals  or  constables  rested  the 
duty  of  preserving  order  and  observance  of  the  laws. 
From  May  ist  to  the  last  of  September  there  were 
night  watchmen,  under  the  supervision  of  the  con 
stables,  whose  duty  it  was  to  "duely  examine  all 
Night- Walkers  after  ten  of  the  clock  at  Night  (un- 
les  they  be  known  peacable  Inhabitants)  to  enquire 
whither  they  are  going,  and  what  their  busines  is," 
and,  in  case  they  could  not  give  a  satisfactory  explana 
tion,  then  they  were  to  be  taken  in  custody  until  morn 
ing  and  then  taken  before  the  magistrate  and  com 
pelled  "to  give  satisfaction  for  their  being  abroad  at 
that  time  of  night."  The  watchmen  were  likewise  to 
arrest  all  persons  "behaving  themselves  any  wayes 
debauchedly,  or  shall  be  in  drink";  and  to  see  "all 
Noises  in  the  street  stilled,  and  lights  put  out."  The 
putting  out  of  lights,  however,  was,  partly  at  least, 
for  the  prevention  of  fires.1 

The  official  business  of  the  town  was  transacted  in 

1  Col.  Laws,  1660-1672,  pp.  198-9. 


276  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

town  meetings.  At  these,  as  before  stated,  none  but 
freemen  were  allowed  to  vote.  The  meetings  were 
generally  held  in  the  meeting-house  used  for  relig 
ious  services,  and  they  were  opened  with  prayer.  A 
moderator  presided  and  had  the  casting  vote.  If  he 
refused  to  put  a  question  to  vote  the  meeting  might 
appoint  "any  other  meete  man  of  them  to  do  it,  And 
if  there  be  just  cause,  to  punish  him  that  should  and 
would  not."  The  voting  was  by  a  show  of  hands  or 
by  dividing  the  house. 

"Every  man  whether  Inhabitant  or  fforreiner,  free 
or  not  free,"  had  liberty  to  come  and  "either  by 
speech  or  writeing  to  move  any  lawfull,  seasonable, 
and  materiall  question,  or  to  present  any  necessary 
motion,  complaint,  petition,  Bill  or  information, 
whereof  that  meeting  hath  proper  Cognizance,  so 
it  be  done  in  Convenient  time,  due  order,  and 
respective  manner."1  Any  man  behaving  himself 
offensivelv  at  such  meetings  could  be  fined  by  those 
present  "so  be  it  the  mulct  or  penaltie  exceede  not 
twentie  shillings." 

The  cardinal  idea  of  the  New  England  town  sys 
tem  was  that  the  nearer  government  is  brought  to 
the   people,  the  more  clearly   it  shows  their  senti 
ments  and  reflects  their  will,  and  that  this  is  the  de-, 
sideratum  in  local  affairs.     This  was  the  New  Eng-' 
land    idea    of    both   civil   and   church    government. 
Whatever  was   discussed  in  the  town   meetings  was 
discussed  thoroughly,  and  whatever  action  was  taken 
by  them  was  the  result  of  intelligent  and  deliberate 
conviction.      Therefore  the  vote  of  the  people  of  New 

^•Liberty  No.  12,  Col.  Laws  1660-1672,  p.  35. 


PLANTING  THE  SEED  OF  A  REPUBLIC.     277 

England  in  their  town  meetings  was  a  far  more  re 
liable  index  to  their  sentiments  than  the  vote  of  their 
representatives  in  either  state  or  national  legislature. 

In  these  little  democracies  the  cardinal  principles 
of  political  equality,  opposition  to  tyranny,  and  free 
dom  of  speech  were  taught,  and  taught  in  such  a 
way  that  they  were  never  forgotten. 

The  town  system  has  continued  in  New  England 
without  substantial  change  to  this  day  in  all  portions 
except  large  cities.  Even  Boston  continued  to  be 
under  the  old  system  of  government  until  1822.  The 
town  meetings  were  not  only  schools  for  political  de 
bate  and  instruction,  but  they  were  nurseries  for  the 
propagation  of  republican  principles.  Nor  does  the 
town  system  diminish  in  importance  by  lapse  of  time 
and  change  of  circumstances.  It  is  to-day  the  strong 
est  bulwark  against  centralization  and  usurpation  of 
power  by  either  national  or  state  legislative  depart 
ments.  Mr.  Bryce1  says  that  "where  it  [the  popula 
tion]  is  of  native  American  stock  and  the  number  of 
voting  citizens  is  not  too  great  for  thorough  and  calm 
discussion,  no  better  school  of  politics  can  be  imagined, 
nor  any  method  of  managing  local  affairs  more 
certain  to  prevent  jobbery  and  waste,  to  stimulate 
vigilance  and  breed  contentment." 

It  was  chiefly  through  these  town  organizations 
that  New  England  in  the  colonial  period  was  enabled 
to  maintain  a  school  system  so  greatly  superior  to 
that  of  any  other  portion  of  the  country. 

As  a  political  factor,  the  influence  of  the  town  or 
ganization  was  immense.  "The  town,"  says  Mr. 

1  American  Commonwealth,  Vol.  I,  p.  566. 


278  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

Howard,1  "was  the  political  atom  in  a  most  vital 


sense." 


The  advantage  which  the  town  organization  gave 
New  England  in  the  Revolutionary  period  is  clearly 
shown  by  Professor  Parker  in  the  paper  already  re 
ferred  to: 

"It  was  through  these  agencies  and  this  organization  that 
the  measures  of  the  Mother  Country  were  discussed,  when 
the  controversy  arose  between  her  and  the  colonies.  And 
if  the  merits  of  this  controversy  were  better  understood  by 
the  great  mass  of  the  people  in  New  England  than  in  any 
other  portion  of  the  country  of  similar  extent,  which  I 
doubt  not  was  the  case,  it  was  owing,  in  no  small  degree, 
to  these  town  incorporations :  first,  in  furnishing  the  educa 
tion;  and,  second,  in  the  facilities  they  afforded  for  gather 
ings  of  the  people  and  the  discussion  of  the  subject. 

"There  was  no  extraordinary  effort  necessary  to  secure  a 
meeting,  whenever  one  was  desired.  The  machinery  for  pro 
ducing  it  was  all  ready.  It  only  required  to  be  put  in  opera 
tion.  No  stumps  were  needed  on  which  to  utter  patriotic 
harangues.  The  meeting-houses  were  well  adapted  to  that 
purpose.  It  was  thus  that  great  masses  of  the  people  were 
influenced  to  an  active  and  ardent  patriotism. 

"At  the  same  time  the  most  perfect  facilities  were  fur 
nished  for  a  full  knowledge,  not  only  of  those  who  were 
friendly  to  the  crown,  but  of  the  various  degrees  of  their 
hostility  to  the  popular  cause,  from  that  of  lukewarmness  to 
that  of  rabid  Toryism. 

"It  was  through  these  organizations  that  the  way  was 
prepared  for  resistance,  not  only  in  sentiment,  but  in  ma 
terial.  Depots  of  military  stores  were  provided,  to  a 
1  Local  Constitutional  History  United  States,  p.  60. 


PLANTING   THE    SEED    OF   A    REPUBLIC.  279 

limited  extent  only;  but,  so  far  as  such  provision  was  made, 
it  was  mostly  by  the  towns. 

"Great  Britain  rightly  judged  that  a  portion  of  the  country 
so  organized  was  the  most  dangerous ;  and  all  the  events  of 
the  time  led  to  the  striking  of  the  first  blow  here. 

"It  was  through  these  organizations  that  an  industrious 
yeomanry  while  following  the  plow,  and  the  diligent  tenants 
of  workshops  while  handling  their  tools,  were  converted 
into  an  armed  soldiery,  on  the  first  news  that  the  British 
had  left  the  limits  of  Boston  and  were  marching  into  the 
country.  The  dragons'  teeth  which  produced  that  harvest 
were  sown  in  the  shape  of  farmers  and  mechanics,  who, 
holding  themselves  in  readiness,  as 'minute  men',  required 
but  the  heat  of  warlike  intelligence  to  burst  into  full  life  and 
vigor  as  a  patriotic  army. 

"But  for  these  towns,  New  England  could  not  have  been 
prompt  to  meet  the  crisis,  and  to  assert  the  rights  of  the 
colonies  by  an  armed  resistance  which  made  itself  felt  and 
respected  from  the  very  moment  of  the  onset.  By  driving 
back  the  enemy  discomfited,  notwithstanding  his  partial 
successes,  she  gave  confidence  in  the  result  of  the  war,  if 
war  must  come. 

"It  was  through  their  organization  that  law  was  enforced 
and  order  sustained,  during  the  period  when  war  had  sub 
verted  the  administration  of  justice,  which  had  previously 
existed,  and  peace  had  not  arrived  to  substitute  another. 
The  towns  organized  under  their  own  provisional  govern 
ment,  as  in  the  days  of  the  earliest  settlement,  adopted 
regulations,  and  instituted  an  authority  which  reduced  the 
refractory  to  obedience,  and  prevented  the  state  of  anarchy 
which  must  otherwise  have  existed  to  a  greater  or  less  de 
gree. 

"It  was  through  these  towns  that  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  of  New  England  were  not  only  prepared  to  throw 


2 So  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

off  an  allegiance  which  had  become  oppressive,  but  that 
they  had  anticipated  the  action  of  Congress  upon  that  sub 
ject.  The  several  averments  or  accusations  in  that  bill  of 
indictment,  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  had  been  pre 
viously  asserted  and  sustained  by  resolutions,  over  and  over 
again,  in  the  town  meetings  of  New  England." 

Jefferson  was  not  a  lover  of  New  England,  but  in 
a  letter  written  in  1816  to  Joseph  C.  Cabell,1  he  pays 
this  high  tribute  to  New  England  towns  and  to  their 
power  to  mold  and  solidify  public  sentiment: 

'  'Where  every  man  is  a  sharer  in  the  direction  of  his 
ward  republic,  or  of  some  of  the  higher  ones,  and  feels  that 
he  is  a  participator  in  the  government  of  affairs,  not  merely 
at  an  election  one  day  in  the  year,  but  every  day ;  when 
there  shall  not  be  a  man  in  the  state  who  will  not  be  a 
member  of  some  one  of  its  councils,  great  or  small,  he  will 
let  the  heart  be  torn  out  of  his  body  sooner  than  his  power 
be  wrested  from  him  by  a  Caesar  or  a  Bonaparte.  How 
powerfully  did  we  feel  the  energy  of  this  organization  in  the 
case  of  embargo?  I  felt  the  foundations  of  the  government 
shaken  under  my  feet  by  the  New  England  townships. 
There  was  not  an  individual  in  their  states  whose  body  was 
not  thrown  with  all  its  momentum  into  action;  and  although 
the  whole  of  the  other  states  were  known  to  be  in  favor  of 
the  measure,  yet  the  organization  of  this  little  selfish  minor 
ity  enabled  it  to  overrule  the  Union.  What  would  the  un- 
wieldly  counties  of  the  middle,  the  south  and  the  west  do? 
Call  a  county  meeting,  and  the  drunken  loungers  at  and 
about  the  court-houses  would  have  collected,  the  distances 
being  too  great  for  the  good  people  and  the  industrious  gen 
erally  to  attend.  The  character  of  those  who  really  met 
would  have  been  the  measure  of  the  weight  they  would  have 
1  Jefferson's  Works,  Vol.  6,  p.54^, 


PLANTING   THE    SEED    OF   A    REPUBLIC.  281 

had  in  the  scale  of  public  opinion.  As  Cato,  then,  con 
cluded  every  speech  with  the  words,  '  Carthago  delenda  est,' 
so  do  I  every  opinion,  with  the  injunction,  'divide  the 
counties  into  wards.'  Begin  them  only  for  a  single  purpose; 
they  will  soon  show  for  what  others  they  are  the  best  instru 
ments." 

The  early  town  records  show  a  great  variety  of 
orders  and  regulations.  These  related  chiefly  to 
grants  of  land,  the  location  and  building  of  meeting 
houses,  roads,  bridges  and  pounds,  the  appointment 
of  fence  viewers,  animals  running  at  large,  bounties 
for  wolves,  provisions  for  churches  and  schools,  and 
such  other  matters  as  we  should  naturally  expect  to 
find  the  subject  of  town  action  in  any  new  country 
under  like  conditions. 

At  a  later  period  counties  were  organized  and  offi 
cers  were  elected  suitable  to  such  organizations,  but 
the  town  organizations  continued  to  be,  and  still  are, 
the  most  important  of  the  local  organizations. 


XIII 

HOW    THE     REPUBLIC     GREW— ESCAPE    FROM 
DEMOCRACY 

IT  is  not  probable  that  the  colonists  on  their  arrival 
here  had  any  very  distinct  ideas  about  the  kind  of 
government  which  should  be  established.  The  pro 
jected  enterprise  was  an  experiment.  It  might  end 
in  failure  to  establish  any  kind  of  government. 

It  is  clear  that,  at  least  in  the  beginning,  the  clergy 
did  not  look  with  favor  upon  anything  bearing  the 
semblance  of  a  democracy.  "Democracy,"  said 
John  Cotton,  "I  do  not  conceyve  that  ever  God  did 
ordeyne  as  a  fitt  government  eyther  for  church  or 
commonwealth.  If  the  people  be  governors  who  shall 
be  governed?  As  for  monarchy  and  aristocracy  they 
are  both  of  them  clearely  approoved  and  directed  in 
scripture,  yet  so  as  referreth  the  soveraigntie  to  him 
self  e,  and  setteth  up  Theocracy  in  both,  as  the  best 
forme  of  government  in  the  commonwealth,  as  well 
as  in  the  church."1 

Cotton  also  thought  that  "a  Magistrate  ought  not 
to  be  turned  into  the  condition  of  a  private  man  with 
out  just  cause  and  to  be  publicly  convict,"  and  some 
years  later  (1639)  one  of  the  elders  "declared  his 

1  Letter  to  Lord  Say  and  Seal  (1636),  I  Hutchinson  History  Mass., 
437  App. 

(282) 


HOW   THE    REPUBLIC    GREW.  283 

judgment  that  a  governour  ought  to  be  for  his  life, 
alleging  for  his  authority,  the  practice  of  all  the  best 
commonwealths  in  Europe,  and  especially  that  of 
Israel  by  God's  own  ordinance."1 

The  Rev.  Samuel  Stone,  who  came  from  England 
in  the  same  ship  that  brought  Cotton  and  Hooker, 
when  asked  to  describe  the  Congregational  church- 
government,  said  that:  "It  was  a  speaking  Aristocracy 
in  the  face  of  a  silent  Democracy."2  This  exactly 
describes  the  attitude,  long  maintained  in  the  Massa 
chusetts  commonwealth,  by  the  clergy  to  the  people, 

Nor  is  it  probable  that  the  freemen  themselves,  in 
the  beginning,  contemplated  a  republic.  When  they 
fled  from  England  they  fled  not  so  much  from  mon 
archy  as  from  the  monarch.  Still  they  recognized 
that  monarch  as  their  sovereign  and  clung  with 
great  pertinacity  to  the  charter  which  he  had  given 
them.  But  they  brought  with  them  inherited  ideas 
of  the  rights  of  subjects  and  of  constitutional  guar 
antees  against  arbitrary  power,  then  more  fully  de 
veloped  in  England  than  anywhere  else  on  the  globe. 

So  that,  almost  from  the  beginning  of  the  com 
monwealth,  there  was  a  struggle  on  the  part  of  the 
freemen  against  the  exercise  of  arbitrary  power  by 
the  rulers,  and,  for  several  years,  the  struggle  was 
open  and  at  times  bitter. 

The  Rev.  Nathaniel  Ward  advised  in  1639  against 
the  submission  of  the  laws,  then  being  prepared,  to 
the  "common  consideration  of  the  freemen,"  for,  he 
says,  "I  see  the  spirits  of  the  people  runne  high  and 

1  Winthrop,  Vol.  i,  pp.  132,  301. 
z  Magnalia,  Vol.  i,  p.  437. 


284  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

what  they  get  they  hould."1  Winthrop,  in  the  same 
year,  observed  "how  strictly  the  people  would  seem 
to  stick  to  their  patent,  where  they  think  it  makes 
for  their  advantage,  but  are  content  to  decline  it, 
where  it  will  not  warrant  such  liberties  as  they  have 
taken  up  without  warrant  from  thence."2  In  a  let 
ter  to  Hooker,  he  thought  that  he  and  his  associates 
who  formed  the  government  of  Connecticut  had  com 
mitted  a  grievous  error  in  submitting  its  constitution 
to  the  body  of  the  people,  because,  he  said,  "the 
best  part  is  always  the  least,  and  of  that  best  part  the 
wiser  part  is  always  the  lesser.  The  old  law  was, 
choose  ye  out  judges,  etc.,  and  thou  shalt  bring  the 
matter  to  the  judge."3 

As  soon  as  the  company  was  established  in 
America,  the  assistants  assumed  the  name  and  func 
tions  of  "magistrates,"  and  also  the  law-making 
power,  and  at  a  General  Court  held  in  Boston  in  Oc 
tober,  1630,  they  obtained  a  vote  authorizing  them 
to  select  the  governor  and  the  deputy  governor  from 
their  own  number.  At  the  same  General  Court  it 
was  ordered  that  the  assistants,  "when  there  are  to 
be  chosen,"  should  be  chosen  by  the  company  at 
large,  the  implication  from  this  being  that,  when 
elected,  they  were  to  hold  for  life  or  during  good  be 
havior.  These  assumptions  of  power  were  not 
kindly  received,  even  by  the  freemen,  and  we  may 
be  sure  that  the  non-voting  population  looked  upon 
such  assumptions  with  jealous  eyes  and  ill-concealed 

1  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  4th  Ser.,  Vol.  8,  pp.  26-27. 

8  Vol.  i,  p.  303. 

8  Winthrop,  Vol.  2,  p.  350. 


HOW   THE    REPUBLIC    GREW.  285 

dislike.  The  freemen  themselves  soon  began  to 
make  complaint  and  to  assert  their  rights. 

In  1631  the  General  Court  ordered  the  levy  of  a 
tax  for  the  purpose  of  fortifying  Newtown,  and  £8 
was  laid  on  Watertown,  as  its  share  of  the  burden, 
but  "  the  pastor  and  elder,  etc.,  assembled  the  peo 
ple  and  delivered  their  opinions  that  it  was  not  safe 
to  pay  moneys  after  that  sort,  for  fear  of  bringing 
themselves  and  posterity  into  bondage"^  They 
were  pacified,  however,  for  a  time,  by  being  assured 
that  "this  government  was  rather  in  the  nature  of  a 
parliament,"  in  which  they  were  represented  by  as 
sistants  chosen  of  all  the  freemen.  But  this  assur 
ance  did  not  long  satisfy  the  freemen,  and  at  the 
General  Court  in  1632  they  secured  the  right  to  elect 
*'two  of  every  plantation  to  confer  with  the  Court 
about  raising  a  public  stock."2  At  the  same  Gen 
eral  Court,  that  there  might  be  no  further  doubt  on 
the  subject,  it  was  ordered  that,  not  only  the  gov 
ernor  and  the  deputy  governor,  but  also  the  assist 
ants  should  be  chosen  annually  at  the  general  elec 
tion.3 

The  order  made  in  1632  for  the  selection  of  depu- 
.  ties  by  the  towns  to  represent  them  in  matters  of  rais 
ing  public  revenues,  seems  to  have  led  in  1634  to  the 
selection  of  deputies  to  represent  the  towns  generally 
in  the  sessions  of  the  General  Court,  and ..three  were 
allowed  for  each  of  eight  towns  then  existing.  This 
was  a  very  important  step.  It  had  become  very  in 
convenient,  and  in  fact  impracticable,  with  the  in- 

1  Winthrop,  Vol.  i,  p.  70. 

2  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  95. 

8  Winthrop,  Vol.  i,  pp.  75-76. 


286  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

crease  of  population  and  the  extension  of  the  settle 
ments,  for  all  the  freemen  to  meet  at  every  session  of 
the  General  Court,  and,  in  order  that  the  great  body 
of  the  freemen  might  have  any  voice  in  its  proceed 
ings,  it  was  necessary  that  they  should  be  repre 
sented  in  the  meetings  by  deputies  of  their  own 
choosing.  Still  the  patent  nowhere  authorized  the 
selection^  of  deputies,  and  this  was  one  of  the  in 
stances  alluded  to  by  Winthrop  when  he  said  that 
the  freemen  were  quick  to  take  liberties  without  any 
warrant  in  the  charter  for  so  doing. 

The  long  struggle  of  the  freemen,  which  resulted 
in  the  adoption  of  the  Body  of  Liberties,  has  been 
described  in  a  former  chapter.1 

At  the  General  Court  in  1636,  provision  was  made 
for  a  "Standing  Council,"  consisting  of  a  certain 
number  of  magistrates  whose  tenure  of  office  should 
be  for  life,  unless  removed  upon  conviction  of  crime 
or  other  sufficient  cause,  and  soon  after  Winthrop, 
Dudley  and  Endicott  were  chosen  members  of  it. 
There  was  not  a  shadow  of  authority  for  this  in  the 
charter,  and  none  but  the  three  named  were  ever 
elected  members  of  it.  Still  it  was  regarded  as  a 
"sinful  innovation,"  and  the  people  became  the 
more  jealous  of  it  by  reason  of  the  renewal  of  the 
talk  about  electing  a  governor  for  life,  "as  if  there 
had  been  some  plot  to  put  it  in  practice,"  and  by 
reason  also  of  the  order  reducing__the_ number  of 
deputies  for  each  town  frorn_  three  to  two,  which  "oc 
casioned  some  to  fear  that  the  Magistrates  intended 
to  make  themselves  stronger  and  the  deputies  weaker 

1  Chapter  III. 


HOW   THE    REPUBLIC    GREW.  287 

and  so  in  time  bring  all  power  into  the  hands  of  the 
Magistrates."  So  strong  were  the  protests  that  in 
1638  it  was  ordered  that  "no  person  chosen  a  Coun 
cilor  for  Life  should  have  any  authority  as  a  Magis 
trate,  except  he  were  chosen  in  the  annual  elections 
to  one  of  the  places  of  magistracy  established  by  the 
patent." 

Much  as  the  people  confided  in  Winthrop,  they 
were  by  no  means  willing  to  see  him  in  office  for 
life,  and  from  1633  to  1637  ne  was  ^ft  out  °f  office, 
and  during  this  interval  no  one  was  re-elected  gov 
ernor,  this  being  done,  as  Palfrey  supposes,  in  order 
that  the  freemen  might  emphasize  their  hostility  to 
life  terms  and  vindicate  their  own  right  to  elect. 
There  was  opposition  again  to  the  election  of  Win- 
throp  in  1639,  "not  out  of  any  dislike  of  him  (for 
they  all  loved  and  esteemed  him),"  but  out  of  fear 
lest  his  re-election  "might  make  way  for  having  a 
governour  for  life.'51 

For  a  time  the  deputies  and  the  assistants  sat  to 
gether  as  one  body,  and  on  several  occasions  a  ma 
jority  of  the  deputies  had  voted  one  way  and  a  ma 
jority  of  the  assistants  a  contrary  way,  but  the  diffi 
culty  had  been  passed  by  without  settling  the  disputed 
claim  of  the  assistants  to  a  negative  vote.  The  first 
notable  clash  between  the  deputies  and  the  assistants 
occurred  when  Hooker  and  his  friends  in  1634  aP~ 
plied  to  the  General  Court  for  leave  to  settle  in  the 
Connecticut  country.  The  majority  of  deputies  were 
in  favor  of  granting  their  petition  but  the  majority  of 
the  assistants  were  against  it.  Thereupon  the  Gen- 

Winthrop,  Vol.  i,  p.  299. 


2SS  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

-eral  Court  agreed  to  keep  a  day  of  humiliation  and 
prayer  and  adjourned  to  meet  the  next  week.  "At 
the  opening  of  the  court,"  says  Hutchinson,1  "Mr. 
Cotton  preached  from  Hag.  11,4  ' Yet  now  be  strong 
O  Zerubbabel  saith  the  Lord,  and  be  strong  O  Joshua 
the  son  of  Josedech,  the  high  priest;  and  be  strong,  all 
ye  people  of  the  land,  saith  the  Lord,  and  work:  for  I 
am  with  you,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts.'  :  With  deli 
cate  sarcasm  Hutchinson  adds  that  "his  sermon  was 
as  pertinent  to  the  occasion  as  his  text,"  but,  never 
theless,  he  "prevailed  upon  the  deputies  to  give  up 
the  point  at  that  time." 

At  the  General  Court  in  1642  "there  fell  out,"  as 
Winthrop  says,  "a  great  business  upon  a  very  small 
•occasion."  A  poor  widow,  Mrs.  Sherman,  and  Capt. 
Keayne,2  a  rich  man,  got  into  a  dispute  about  a  stray 
pig,  and  the  dispute  found  its  way  into  the  courts  and 
from  there  into  the  General  Court,  where  a  majority 
of  the  deputies  sided  with  the  widow  while  a  major 
ity  of  the  assistants  sided  with  the  rich  man,  and  so 
numerous  were  the  widow's  adherents  that  she  had 
a  large  majority  of  the  total  vote. 

This  conflict  of  opinion  extended  throughout  the 
commonwealth,  and  revived  the  old  controversy  about 
the  right  of  the  assistants  to  a  negative  vote,  and  into 
the  controversy  was  injected  a  greal  deal  of  passion 
and  bitterness.  The  matter  "was  agitated  with  so 
hot  a  zeal,"  says  the  author  of  "The  Magnalia,"5 
"that  a  little  more  and  all  had  been  in  the  fire"  It 

1  Vol.  i,  p.  47. 

8 1  infer  from  the  records  that  he  was  the  same  person  whose  trial  for 
•extortion  is  mentioned  in  Chap.  VI. 
"Vol.  i,  p.  126. 


HOW   THE    REPUBLIC    GREW.  289 

was  a  critical  time,  for,  upon  the  outcome  of  the  con 
troversy  hinged  the  determination  of  the  question 
whether  the  future  development  of  the  commonwealth 
should  be  in  the  direction  of  a  democracy  or  in  the 
direction  of  a  republic. 

The  freemen  had  made  rapid  and  great  advances 
toward  a  democracy.  Heretofore  the  deputies  sat  with 
the  assistants  as  one  body.  It  was  now  claimed  that 
the  majority  vote  of  the  whole  body  should  be  deci 
sive,  although  the  majority  of  the  assistants,  or  all  of 
them,  should  be  of  a  contrary  opinion.  If  this  claim 
had  been  conceded  the  result  would  have  been  an 
almost  pure  democracy;  for  the  deputies,  the  as 
sistants,  and  the  governor,  were  all  elected  annually; 
the  governor  had  no  veto  power,  and,  if  the  assist 
ants  had  been  shorn  of  the  right  to  a  negative  vote, 
there  would  have  been  no  checks  nor  balances,  such 
as  are  now  generally  conceded  to  be  essential  to  pre 
vent  hasty  and  ill-considered  legislative  action,  and 
the  proposed  democracy  would  doubtless  soon  have 
gone  to  pieces. 

The  assistants  were  firm.  The  deputies  were 
equally  firm.  The  clergy  sided  with  the  assistants, 
but  still  the  deputies  held  out.  Again  Winthrop 
faced  responsibility  at  the  risk  of  losing  popularity. 
He  upheld  the  claim  of  the  assistants  to  the  right  of 
a  negative  vote.  The  result  of  this  was  that  the 
next  year,  and  always  afterward,  the  deputies  and 
the  assistants  sat  as  separate  bodies.  Conflicts  be 
tween  the  two  bodies  afterwards  arose  and  they 
were  sometimes  bitter,  notably  so  in  the  case  of  the 

PUR.  REP. — 19 


290  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

^ 

Hingham  train-band,  which  arose  in  1645.  Again 
Winthrop  sided  with  the  assistants.  For  this  the 
deputies  demanded  an  inquiry  into  his  conduct.1  The 
inquiry  was  granted  and  Winthrop  was  acquitted. 
At  his  trial  he  made  "a  little  speech."2  What  he 
said  will  always  be  as  worthy  of  careful  consideration 
as  when  his  words  were  spoken: 

"The  great  questions,"  he  said,  "that  have  troubled  the 
country,  are  about  the  authority  of  the  magistrates  and  the 
liberty  of  the  people.  It  is  yourselves  who  have  called  us 
to  this  office,  and  being  called  by  you,  we  have  our  author 
ity  from  God,  in  way  of  an  ordinance,  such  as  hath  the 
image  of  God  eminently  stamped  upon  it,  the  contempt 
and  violation  whereof  hath  been  vindicated  with  examples 
of  divine  vengeance.  I  entreat  you  to  consider,  that  when 
you  choose  magistrates,  you  take  them  from  among  your 
selves,  men  subject  to  like  passions  as  you  are.  Therefore 
when  you  see  infirmities  in  us,  you  should  reflect  upon  your 
own,  and  that  would  make  you  bear  the  more  with  us,  and 
not  be  severe  censurers  of  the  failings  of  your  magistrates, 
when  you  have  continual  experience  of  the  like  infirmities 
in  yourselves  and  others.  We  account  him  a  good  servant 
who  breaks  not  his  covenant.  The  covenant  between  you 
and  us  is  the  oath  you  have  taken  of  us,  which  is  to  this 
purpose  that  we  shall  govern  you  and  judge  your  causes  by 
the  rules  of  God's  laws  and  our  own,  according  to  our  best 
skill.  When  you  agree  with  a  workman  to  build  you  a  ship 
or  house,  etc.,  he  undertakes  as  well  for  his  skill  as  for  his 
faithfulness,  for  it  is  his  profession,  and  you  pay  him  for 
both.  But  when  you  call  one  to  be  a  magistrate,  he  doth 
not  profess  nor  undertake  to  have  sufficient  skill  for  that 
office,  nor  can  you  furnish  him  with  gifts,  etc.,  therefore 

1Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  2,  p.  97. 

2  Winthrop,  Vol.  2,  pp.  228-230. 


HOW   THE    REPUBLIC    GREW.  29! 

you  must  run  the  hazard  of  his  skill  and  ability.  But  if  he 
fail  in  faithfulness,  which  by  his  oath  he  is  bound  unto,  that 
he  must  answer  for.  If  it  fall  out  that  the  case  be  clear  to 
common  apprehension,  and  the  rule  clear  also,  if  he  trans 
gress  here,  the  error  is  not  in  the  skill,  but  in  the  evil  of 
the  will,  it  must  be  required  of  him.  But  if  the  case  be 
doubtful,  or  the  rule  doubtful,  to  men  of  such  understand 
ing  and  parts  as  your  magistrates  are,  if  your  magistrates 
should  err  here  yourselves  must  bear  it. 

"For  the  other  point  concerning  liberty,  I  observe  a  great 
mistake  in  the  country  about  that.  There  is  a  twofold  lib 
erty,  natural  (I  mean  as  our  nature  is  now  corrupt)  and 
civil  or  federal.  The  first  is  common  to  man  with  beasts 
and  other  creatures.  By  this,  man,  as  he  stands  in  relation 
to  man  simply,  hath  liberty  to  do  what  he  lists ;  it  is  a  lib 
erty  to  evil  as  well  as  to  good  This  liberty  is  incompatible 
and  inconsistent  with  authority,  and  can  not  endure  the  least 
restraint  of  the  most  just  authority.  The  exercise  and 
maintaining  of  this  liberty  makes  men  grow  more  evil,  and 
in  time  to  be  worse  than  brute  beasts ;  omnes  sumus  licen- 
tia  deteriores.  This  is  that  great  enemy  of  truth  and  peace, 
that  wild  beast,  which  all  the  ordinances  of  God  are  bent 
against,  to  restrain  and  subdue  it.  The  other  kind  of  lib 
erty  I  call  civil  or  federal,  it  may  also  be  termed  moral,  in 
reference  to  the  covenant  between  God  and  man,  in  the 
moral  law  and  the  politic  covenants  and  constitutions,  amongst 
men  themselves.  This  liberty  is  the  proper  end  and  object 
of  authority,  and  can  not  subsist  without  it;  and  it  is  a  lib 
erty  to  that  only  which  is  good,  just,  and  honest.  This  lib 
erty  you  are  to  stand  for,  with  the  hazard  (not  only  of  your 
goods,  but)  of  your  lives,  if  need  be.  Whatsoever  crosseth 
this,  is  not  authority,  but  a  distemper  thereof,  This  liberty 
is  maintained  and  exercised  in  a  way  of  subjection  to  au 
thority  ;  it  is  the  same  kind  of  liberty  wherewith  Christ  hath 


292  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

made  us  free.  *  *  *  On  the  other  side,  ye  know  who 
they  are  that  complain  of  this  yoke  and  say,  let  us  break 
their  bands,  etc.,  we  will  not  have  this  man  to  rule  over  us. 
Even  so,  brethren,  it  will  be  between  you  and  your  magis 
trates.  If  you  stand  for  your  natural  corrupt  liberties,  and 
will  do  what  is  good  in  your  own  eyes,  you  will  not  endure 
the  least  weight  of  authority,  but  will  murmur,  and  oppose, 
and  be  always  striving  to  shake  off  that  yoke;  ^but  if  you 
will  be  satisfied  to  enjoy  such  civil  and  lawful  liberties,  such 
as  Christ  allows  you,  then  will  you  quietly  and  cheerfully 
submit  unto  that  authority  which  is  set  over  you,  in  all 
the  administrations  of  it,  for  your  good.*  Wherein,  if  we 
fail  at  any  time,  we  hope  we  shall  be  willing  (by  God's  as 
sistance)  to  hearken  to  good  advice  from  any  of  you,  or  in 
any  other  way  of  God;  so  shall  your  liberties  be  preserved, 
in  upholding  the  honor  and  power  of  authority  amongst  you. ' ' 

From  that  period  to  the  end  of  the  commonwealth 
the  right  of  each  of  the  two  legislative  bodies  to 
negative  the  action  of  the  other  seems  to  have  been 
mutually  acquiesced  in,  if  not  unreservedly  conceded. 

It  is  easy  to  see  in  these  conflicts  between  the  as 
sistants  and  the  deputies,  that  the  latter  were  in 
closer  touch  with  the  public  pulse,  and  leaned  far 
more  than  the  former  toward  the  enlargement  of 
the  rights  of  the  people  and  the  curtailing  of  arbi 
trary  power.  In  the  trial  of  Gorton  and  his  asso 
ciates,  the  elders  and  all  the  assistants  except 
three  advised  inflicting  the  death  penalty,  but  Massa 
chusetts  was  saved  from  this  disgrace  by  the  refusal 
of  the  deputies  to  concur  in  the  infliction  of  the 
penalty  voted  by  the  assistants. 

In  a  former  chapter1  it  was  said  that  the  control  of 

1  Chap.  X. 


HOW   THE    REPUBLIC    GREW.  293 

the  clergy  over  the  legislature,  the  courts  and  the 
people  was  " well-nigh  supreme."  But,  powerful  as 
it  was,  the  influence  of  the  clergy  never  became 
supreme.  The  elders  never  succeeded  in  wholly 
subduing  the  spirit  of  independence  in  the  people, 
and  ecclesiastical  power  waned  as  republican  ideas 
gained  strength. 

The  deputies  were  never  so  ready  as  the  as 
sistants  to  yield  to  the  clergy,  and  from  the  first 
the  General  Court  asserted  its  authority  over  the 
churches  and  gave  them  to  understand  that  the 
ecclesiastical  were  subordinate  to  the  civil  authorities. 
The  church  at  Maiden,  as  before  stated,  was  fined 
because  the  members  had  presumed  to  call  a  minister 
without  the  consent  of  the  neighboring  churches  and 
the  allowance  of  the  magistrates.  The  General  Court 
also  interfered  and  forbade  the  members  of  the  North 
Church  in  Boston  to  call  Michael  Powell  to  be  their 
minister.  "It  was  justly  observed  upon  this  occa 
sion,"  says  Hutchinson,1  quoting  from  Hubbard, 
"that  let  the  experience  of  all  reformed  churches  be 
consulted  and  it  will  appear  that  disorder  and  con 
fusion  in  the  church  will  not  be  avoided  by  all  the 
determinations,  advice  and  council  of  synods  or  other 
messengers  of  churches,  unless  they  be  a  little  actuated 
by  the  civil  authority :  all  men  are  naturally  so  wedded 
to  their  own  apprehensions  that,  unless  there  be  a 
coercive  power  to  restrain,  the  order  and  rule  of  the 
gospel  will  not  be  attended." 

The  General  Court  often  sought  the  advice  of  the 
elders,  but  they  were  given  to  understand  that  their 

'Vol.  i,  P.  174- 


294  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

advice  would  be  acceptable  only  when  it  was  asked. 
Dr.  Ellis  tells  us  that  there  are  not  lacking  evidences 
in  the  records  of  the  General  Court  "  that  the  elders 
were  sometimes  reminded  that  on  some  subjects  they 
should  withhold  the  utterance  of  their  opinions  till 
asked  for  them,  and  that,  while  their  advice  was 
valued,  dictation  did  not  become  them."1 

The  church  members  themselves  had  decided  in 
1632  that  one  person  might  not  be  "a  civil  magis 
trate  and  a  ruling  elder  at  the  same  time."2 

At  an  early  day  the  question  was  raised  whether 
the  members  of  the  General  Court  could  be  held  re 
sponsible  to  the  churches  for  what  had  been  said  and 
done  by  them  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties  as  such 
members;  and  in  the  determination  of  the  question 
we  again  see  Winthrop  as  the  central  figure  in  the 
formation  of  a  republic. 

We  have  already  seen  him  standing  out  against 
the  claim  of  the  deputies  and  in  favor  of  the  right  of 
the  assistants  to  a  negative  vote;  now  we  see  him 
standing  out  against  a  claim  of  supervisory  power 
for  the  clergy,  acquiescence  in  which  would  have 
been  as  fatal  to  the  republic  as  acquiescence  in  the 
claim  of  the  deputies.  Yielding  to  the  claim  of  the 
deputies  would  have  resulted  in  an  unlimited  de 
mocracy;  yielding  to  the  claim  for  supervisory  power 
of  the  clergy  would  have  resulted  practically  in  an 
ecclesiastical  oligarchy. 

The  question  first  became  prominent  soon  after 
the  proceedings  of  the  General  Court  for  the  punish- 

1  The  Puritan  Age,  p.  191. 

2  Winthrop,  Vol.  i,  p.  81. 


HOW   THE    REPUBLIC    GREW.  295 

ment  of  those  who  had  remonstrated  against  the 
prosecution  of  Wheelwright.  A  full  account  of  all 
these  proceedings  with  the  reasons  therefor  was  sent  to 
England  "to  the  end,"  says  Winthrop,  "that  all  our 
Godly  friends  might  not  be  discouraged  from  coming 
to  us,  etc."  He  adds  that  "after  this,  many  of  the 
church  of  Boston,  being  highly  offended  with  the 
governour  for  this  proceeding,  were  earnest  with  the 
elders  to  have  him  called  to  account  for  it." 

No  man  ever  filled  the  office  of  governor  of  the 
colony  who  had  a  higher  regard  than  Winthrop  for 
the  ministers,  but,  much  as  he  respected  them,  he 
was  not  prepared  to  sacrifice  the  commonwealth  by 
turning  over  to  them  all  the  powers  of  the  govern 
ment.  He  was  not  called  to  account,  but  he  took 
the  first  opportunity  that  offered  to  say  "that  if  he 
had  been  called,  etc.,  he  would  have  desired  first,  to 
have  advised  with  the  elders,  -whether  the  church  had 
power  to  call  in  question  the  -proceedings  of  the  civil 
Court"  He  then  proceeded  to  show  in  language 
which  could  not  be  misunderstood  that  the  church 
had  no  power  "to  inquire  into  the  justice  and  pro 
ceedings  of  the  court."1 

At  a  later  date,  in  the  unfortunate  controversy  that 
grew  out  of  selecting  a  successor  for  the  Rev.  John 
Wilson  of  the  First  Church  in  Boston,  the  deputies 
espoused  the  cause  of  the  church  and  appointed  a 
committee  which  made  a  report  not  at  all  pleasing  to 
some  of  the  ministers.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Flint  of  Dor 
chester  recorded  in  his  diary  a  solemn  declaration 
against  the  "spirit  of  division,  persecuting  and  op- 

1  Winthrop,  Vol.  I,  pp.  247-250. 


296  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

pressing  God's  ministers  and  precious  saints"  as  "a 
great  sin ' '  which  ' '  threatens  a  sword  of  divine 
wrath,"  and.  fifteen  of  the  leading  ministers  sent  to 
the  General  Court  a  protest  against  its  proceedings. 
"The  court,"  says  Hutchinson,  "took  this  address 
into  their  immediate  consideration";  but  "first  as 
serted  their  own  authority,  and  that  the  acts  of  the 
court  'were  not  liable  to  question  by  any,  and  that 
free  debates  'were  the  indubitable  right  of  the  court" 
Hutchinson  adds:  "I  have  been  more  particular  in 
relating  this  transaction,  because  it  gives  us  a  pretty 
good  idea  of  the  connection  between  the  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  power;':  the  churches,  notwithstanding 
their  claim  to  independency,  being  liable  to  controul 
as  oft  as  their  proceedings  were  disapproved  by  the 
civil  magistrate."1 

Within  a  period  of  less  than  twenty  years  after 
the  coming  of  Winthrop  there  had  been  laid  the 
foundations  of  a  republic. 

From  1644  to  the-  end  of  the  commonwealth 
the  attention  of  the  people  was  directed  largely  to 
the  wars  with  the  Indians,  the  extension  of  com 
merce,  the  disputes  with  the  Quakers  and  other 
sectaries,  the  struggle  to  maintain  the  charter,  and 
other  important  affairs,  and  we  do  not  find  that  the 
colonists  were  devoting  so  much  time  as  formerly  to 
establishing  guarantees  against  the  exercise  by  their 
rulers  of  arbitrary  power.  This,  however,  was  not 
because  the  people  had  grown  indifferent  or  less 
watchful,  but  because  their  rulers  did  not  give  them 

1  Hutchinson,  Vol.  I,  pp.  247-251. 


HOW   THE    REPUBLIC    GREW.  297 

any  cause  to  believe  that  additional  guarantees  were 
necessary. 

There  was  lacking,  however,  one  thing  essential 
to  the  full  development  of  a  republic — the  removal 
of  the  restrictions  upon  admission  to  the  privileges  of 
freemen,  so  that  those  who  were  not  members  of  the 
Puritan  churches  might,  nevertheless,  exercise  the 
right  to  vote  and  take  part  in  governmental  affairs. 

The  charter  had  given  to  the  governor,  assistants 
and  freemen,  who  should  be  assembled  at  any  of  the 
"greate  and  Generall  Courts  of  the  said  Company," 
"full  power  and  authoritie  to  choose,  nominate  and 
appointe  such  and  soe  many  others  as  they  shall 
thinke  fitt,  and  that  shall  be  willing  to  accept  the 
same,  to  be  free  of  the  said  Company  and  Body,  and 
them  into  the  same  admitt."  There  was,  it  is  true, 
no  express  prohibition  against  the  exclusion  of  ap 
plicants  on  account  of  their  religious  views.  On  the 
other  hand,  no  express  authority  was  given  for  such 
exclusion  on  such  grounds,  and  it  would  be  difficult, 
by  any  process  of  construction,  to  imply  authority 
from  the  powers  which  were  given.  It  would  be 
preposterous  to  suppose  that  King  Charles  or  the 
parliament  ever  dreamed  of  such  a  construction  as 
would  confer  the  right  to  exclude  from  the  privileges 
of  freemen  members  in  good  standing  of  the  estab 
lished  church  of  England;  and  yet  this  power  was 
given  also  if  the  power  was  given  to  exclude  Bap 
tists  and  Quakers.  The  natural  and  reasonable  con 
struction  of  the  charter  provision  was  that  given  by 
Charles  II  in  his  letter  sent  by  Bradstreet  and 
Norton,  wherein  he  had  directed  that  "all  freehold- 


298  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

ers  of  competent  estates,  not  vicious  in  conversation, 
orthodox  in  religion  (though  of  different  pursuasions 
concerning  church  government) ,  may  have  their  vote 
in  the  election  of  all  officers,  civil  and  military." 

The  manner  in  which  the  Theocracy  evaded  both 
the  provisions  of  the  charter  and  the  positive  com 
mands  of  the  King,  in  order  to  limit  the  right  of 
citizenship  to  members  of  the  Puritan  churches,  has 
already  been  explained.1  But  the  commonwealth 
rulers  could  not  have  succeeded  much  longer  in  ex 
cluding  from  the  rights  of  citizenship  the  non-church- 
members,  even  if  the  charter  had  not  been  revoked 
and  if  the  King  had  not  interfered.  At  the  close  of 
the  commonwealth  five-sixths  of  the  adult  male 
population  were  non-voters,2  but  they  were  taxed  the 
same  as  the  voters  and  most  of  them  were  probably 
equal  to  the  members  of  the  Puritan  churches  in  in 
telligence  and  morality.  It  is  not  likely  that  they 
would  have  submitted  much  longer  to  disfranchise- 
ment,  even  if  the  King  had  not  come  to  their  aid. 

Long  before  the  end  of  the  commonwealth  the 
government  itself,  in  its  form  and  operation,  was 
essentially  republican.  The  Body  of  Liberties  did 
not,  it  is  true,  contain  all  the  safeguards  against 
arbitrary  power  and  all  the  barriers  separating  the 
executive,  legislative  and  judicial  departments,  and 
preventing  encroachments  by  one  upon  the  functions 
of  the  others,  that  are  contained  in  the  constitutions 
of  to-day,  but  it  contained  all  the  safeguards  of 
liberty  that  were  then  deemed  of  prime  importance 

1  See  Chapters  X  and  XI. 
8  The  Puritan  Age,  p.  203. 


HOW    THE    REPUBLIC    GREW.  299 

and  that  constituted  the  chief  groundwork  of  the 
constitutions  adopted  by  the  states  a  hundred  years 
later.  The  governor  and  the  members  of  the  legis 
lative  departments  were  elected  by  the  people.  The 
characteristic  features  of  the  town  governments  have 
already  been  noted.  The  town  meetings  were  primary 
schools  for  teaching  the  principles  and  practice  of 
republican  government. 

The  peculiar  situation  and  condition  of  the  people 
tended  to  disseminate  republican  ideas.  The  common 
dangers  which  made  them  reliant  upon  each  other; 
the  absence  of  distinctions  founded  on  rank  and 
those  existing  in  old  and  opulent  communities  be 
tween  the  very  rich  and  the  very  poor;  the  limited 
territory  occupied  by  them;  all  these  circumstances 
tended  to  promote  intimate  business  and  social  inter 
course  and  to  establish  ideas  of  political  equality. 

The  experience  of  those  who  came  here  from  Eng 
land,  especially  those  who  had  suffered  from  the 
arbitrary  power  of  .King  Charles  I,  was  not  calculated 
to  make  them  fall  in  love  with  monarchical  forms  of 
government.  Those  who  were  born  and  bred  here 
had  not  been  dazzled  by  the  magnificence,  nor  awed 
by  the  majesty,  of  kings  and  royal  courts.  "Most  of 
the  inhabitants,"  says  Hutchinson,1  "who  were  upon 
the  stage  in  1686  had  never  seen  a  church  of  Eng 
land  assembly."  And  most  of  them  had  never  seen 
a  king. 

Of  the  kings  of  England  during  the  commonwealth 
period  one  had  been  beheaded  and  another  driven 
from  his  throne,  and  the  reign  of  the  "Merry  Mon- 

1  Vol.  i,  p.  318. 


300  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

arch,"  the  best  of  the  three,  was  characterized  by 
such  debaucheries  and  corruption  of  public  and  pri 
vate  morals  as  to  disgust  all  decent  people  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic.  More  than  fifty  years  of  prac 
tical  experience  had  demonstrated  to  all  that  the 
people  here  could  live  and  live  happily  without  kings 
and  nobles  and  that  they  were  fully  capable  of  gov 
erning  themselves. 

In  this  period  they  had  laid  the  foundations  of  a 
commonwealth.  They  had  all  the  machinery  of 
government  in  successful  operation.  They  had  in 
creased  greatly  in  population  and  wealth.  They  had 
carried  on  two  Indian  wars  without  calling  upon 
England  to  contribute  one  soldier  or  one  penny. 

How,  during  this  period,  they  struggled  for  the 
right  to  govern  themselves  for  all  time  and  for  entire 
independence  from  England,  will  be  the  subject  of 
subsequent  chapters.1 

So  that,  long  before  the  revocation  of  the  charter 
the  colonists  had  become  thoroughly  educated  in  re 
publican  ideas  and  wanted  only  the  power  and  the 
opportunity  to  establish  a  government  which  should 
be  not  only  republican  in  form  but  wholly  inde 
pendent. 

1  Chapters  XV,  XVI. 


XIV 

LAYING  THE  FOUNDATIONS  OF  A  GREATER 
REPUBLIC— THE  UNITED  COLONIES  OF  NEW 
ENGLAND 

No  authority  for  the  New  England  confederation 
can  be  found  in  any  statute  passed  by  any  English 
parliament  or  in  any  charter  granted  by  any  English 
sovereign.  "No  patent,"  says  Chalmers,1  " legal 
ized  the  confederacy,  neither  was  it  confirmed  by  the 
approbation  of  the  governing  powers  in  England. 
Their  consent  was  never  applied  for,  and  was  never 
given."  Chalmers  also  asserts  that  "the  principles, 
upon  which  this  famous  association  was  formed, 
were  altogether  those  of  independency,  and  it  can  not 
easily  be  supported  upon  any  other." 

Whatever  ideas  of  independence  the  confederation 
may  have  suggested  to  the  colonists  or  to  the  rulers 
of  England  at  a  later  date,  there  is  no  reasonable 
ground  on  which  to  suppose  that  at  the  date  of  its 
formation  the  confederates  entertained  any  secret  de 
sign  of  using  it  to  aid  them  in  severing  allegiance  to 
the  mother  country. 

The  chief  reasons  for  forming  such  a  confederation 
were  obvious,  and  were  those  which  were  declared 
in  the  articles  afterward  adopted.  The  New  Eng 
land  colonists  were  practically  all  of  the  same  race 

1  Annals,  p.  178. 

(301) 


302  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

and  of  the  same  religion,  and  many  of  them  were 
bound  together  by  the  closest  ties  of  blood  and  mar 
riage.  On  one  side  of  them  were  the  French,  on 
another  the  Dutch,  and  all  around  them  were  the 
Indians.  In  the  event  of  war  with  any  of  these, 
they  were  too  remote  from  England  to  expect  mate 
rial  aid,  and  such  a  war,  carried  on  by  any  one  of 
the  colonies  alone,  would  have  severely  taxed  its  re 
sources.  It  is  doubtful  if  Massachusetts,  single- 
handed,  could  have  sustained  such  a  war;  it  is  cer 
tain  that  neither  of  the  other  colonies  could  have 
done  so.  The  advantage  of  such  a  confederation, 
the  urgent  necessity  for  it,  had  been  conclusively 
shown  in  the  Pequot  war. 

In  this  connection,  however,  it  may  be  of  interest 
to  note  one  of  the  reasons  stated  in  the  articles  of 
confederation  afterward  adopted,  viz.:  "The  sad  dis 
tractions  in  England"  by  which  "we  are  hindered 
both  from  that  humble  way  of  seeking  advice,  and 
reaping  those  comfortable  fruits  of  protection,  which 
at  other  times  we  might  well  expect."  We  can 
readily  believe  that  the  confederation  would  not  have 
been  formed  but  for  the  "sad  distractions  in  Eng 
land."  If  the  English  rulers  had  not  been  ham 
pered  by  these  distractions  it  is  pretty  certain  that  the 
colonists  would  not  have  dared  to  form  such  a  con 
federation.  It  is  difficult  for  us  to  believe,  however, 
that  the  colonists  united  in  the  confederation  because 
they  were  debarred,  by  reason  of  the  distractions  in 
England,  from  soliciting  the  advice  and  protection 
which  otherwise  they  might  have  expected  and  asked. 
If  there  was  anything  which  the  colonists  of  the 


FOUNDATIONS    OF   A    GREATER    REPUBLIC.       303 

Massachusetts  commonwealth  studiously  avoided  it 
was  asking  either  the  advice  or  the  protection  of  the 
English  rulers. 

"The  New  England  Confederation,"  says  Mr. 
John  Quincy  Adams,1  "originated  in  the  Plymouth 
colony,  and  was  probably  suggested  to  them  by  the 
example  which  they  had  witnessed,  and  under  which 
they  had  lived  several  years,  in  the  United  Nether 
lands."  Hubbard  gives  us  this  account  of  the  origin 
of  the  confederation: 

"  'Woe  to  him  that  is  alone,7  saith  Solomon.  The 
people  that  came  over  to  New  England  were  necessitated  to 
disperse  themselves  further,  each  from  other,  than  they  in 
tended  ;  yet  finding  that,  in  their  first  and  weak  beginnings, 
they  might  be  exposed  to  danger  by  many  enemies,  and  as 
well  from  the  natives  as  any  foreign  nations,  although  that 
they  saw  they  could  not  be  accommodated  within  the 
bounds  of  one  and  the  same  Patent,  yet  judged  it  very  ex 
pedient  to  be  joined  together  in  one  common  bond  of  unity 
and  peace,  by  as  firm  engagement  as  might  be  on  either 
side.  They  saw  also,  by  daily  experience  from  the  begin 
ning,  that  without  some  such  obligation,  seeds  of  jealousy 
and  difference  might  easily  be  sown  between  them,  either 
about  their  bounds  or  other  occasions ;  wherein  all  discov 
ered  an  unwillingness  to  be  subordinate  one  to  another,  yet 
could  not  be  able  to  stand  alone  by  themselves,  without  en 
gagement  of  mutual  assistance." 

The  matter  was  agitated  for  several  years,  and  ar 
ticles  were  drawn  up  in  1638,  but  nothing  was  then 

1  Address  before  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  May  29,  1846; 
Mass.  His.  Coll.,  3d  Ser.,  Vol.  9,  p.  211. 

zHis.  N.  Eng.,  Vol.  6,  Mass.  His.  Coll.,  2d  Ser.,  465-6.  See  also  ar 
ticle  by  Benson  J.  Lossing,  The  New  England  Confederacy,  25  Harper's 
Magazine,  p.  627. 


304  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

agreed  upon  and  further  consideration  of  them  was 
deferred  until  163 9.* 

Winthrop  tells  us  that  in  1637,  " some  of  the  mag 
istrates  and  ministers  of  Connecticut  being  here, 
there  was  a  day  of  meeting  appointed  to  agree  upon 
some  articles  of  confederation,  and  notice  was  given 
to  Plimouth,  that  they  might  join  in  it,  (but  their 
warning  was  so  short  as  they  could  not  come)."2 

The  preliminary  negotiations  seem  to  have  been 
conducted  chiefly  by  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut. 
The  New  Haven  colony  had  not  then  attained  much 
consequence,  and  Plymouth  seems  not  to  have  taken 
so  active  a  part  in  the  negotiations  as  Connecticut. 

The  latter  colony  had  no  idea  of  entering  into  any 
sort  of  confederation  with  its  more  powerful  Massa 
chusetts  neighbor  which  would  undermine  its  own 
autonomy.  The  settlers  of  Connecticut,  like  those 
of  Massachusetts,  were  Puritans  of  the  straitest 
sect.  In  their  laws,  in  their  religious  belief,  and  in 
their  daily  life,  we  can  see  little  difference  between 
them  and  their  Massachusetts  neighbors,  but  there 
were  some  sharply  defined  points  of  difference  be 
tween  the  governmental  systems  of  the  two  com 
monwealths.  One  very  essential  point  of  difference 
was  that,  in  Massachusetts,  none  except  church  mem 
bers  were  admitted  freemen,  and  upon  this  car 
dinal  principle  the  whole  power  of  the  Theocracy 
was  based.  But  either  the  rulers  of  Connecticut  had 
realized  already  the  dangers  of  so  close  a  union  of 
church  and  state  as  existed  in  Massachusetts,  or  they 

1  Hutchinson,  Vol.  i,  p.  119. 

2  Winthrop,  Vol.  i,  p.  237. 


FOUNDATIONS    OF   A    GREATER    REPUBLIC.       305 

were  long-headed  enough  to  foresee  them,  and, 
therefore,  they  did  not  make  church  membership  a 
condition  precedent  to  the  exercise  of  the  privileges 
of  citizenship.  Winthrop  had  condemned  this  too 
great  laxity  in  the  Connecticut  organization.  He 
tells  us  of  the  "shyness"  on  the  part  of  Connecticut 
"of  coming  under  our  government,  which,  though 
we  never  intended  to  make  them  subordinate  to  us, 
yet  they  were  very  jealous."  At  any  rate  the  Con 
necticut  government  would  not  accept  the  articles 
proposed  by  the  Massachusetts  authorities.  John 
Haynes,  William  Pynchon  and  John  Steele  came 
over  and  held  a  conference  with  the  Massachusetts 
General  Court,  but  the  upshot  of  the  matter  was  that 
nothing  was  concluded;  and  after  that  fresh  disputes 
arose  about  boundaries,  and  there  was  some  sharp 
correspondence  in  which  Winthrop  indulged  in 
further  criticisms  on  what  he  called  the  "errors"  in 
the  Connecticut  form  of  government,  one  of  which 
was  that  the  people  of  that  colony  chose  divers  men 
to  fill  the  offices  "who  had  no  learning  or  judgment 
which  might  fit  them  for  those  affairs,  though  other 
wise  men  holy  and  religious." 

It  is  a  striking  illustration  of  the  fallibility  of  the 
opinions  of  men,  even  so  wise  as  Winthrop  is  con 
ceded  to  be,  that  the  written  constitution  which  Con 
necticut  adopted  in  1639  (and  which  was  the  first  of 
its  kind  in  this  country)  lasted,  with  little  change, 
for  1 80  years,  and  that  under  it  the  people  prospered 
and  lived  happy. 

The  Massachusetts  authorities  also  complained  that 

PUR.  REP. — 20 


306  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

those  of  Connecticut  had  concluded  a  treaty  with  the 
Narragansetts  and  Mohegans  in  which  they  had 
ignored  Massachusetts.  It  is  evident  that  at  this 
period  the  spirit  which  animated  the  authorities  of 
Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  was  not  altogether 
conducive  to  the  brotherly  harmony  essential  to  the 
proposed  confederation. 

So  matters  drifted  along  for  a  year  or  two.  Mean 
time  the  governor  of  the  Massachusetts  common 
wealth  had  received  from  the  Lords  Commissioners 
of  Plantations  in  England  a  peremptory  order  for 
the  return  of  the  charter.  Connecticut  was  also  in 
trouble.  A  new  governor  had  been  sent  over  to  the 
Dutch  in  New  York,  and  he  was  complaining  of  the 
intrusion  by  Connecticut  upon  the  Dutch  territory, 
and  threatening  to  establish  forts  in  the  territory 
claimed  by  Connecticut.  Moreover  the  new  Dutch 
governor,  as  Winthrop  tells  us,  was  "very  inquisitive 
how  things  stood  between  us  and  them  of  Connecti 
cut,  which  occasioned  us  the  more  readily  to  renew 
the  former  treaty,  that  the  Dutch  might  not  take 
notice  of  any  breach  or  alienation  between  us."1 

The  Indians  were  also  becoming  turbulent.  Gov 
ernor  Haynes,  of  Connecticut,  the  Rev.  Thomas 
Hooker  and  others  came  to  Boston  and  remained 
nearly  a  month  and  negotiations  for  the  confederacy 
were  resumed.  Finally,  in  1643,  commissioners  rep 
resenting  Plymouth,  Connecticut  and  New  Haven, 
met  at  Boston  and  held  a  conference  with  a  committee 
appointed  by  the  General  Court,  and  "these  coming 
to  consultation  encountered  some  difficulties,  but  being 

1  Vol.  i,  p.  299. 


FOUNDATIONS    OF   A    GREATER    REPUBLIC.       307 

all  desirous  of  union  and  studious  of  peace,  they  readily 
yielded  each  to  other  in  such  things  as  tended  to  com 
mon  utility,  etc.,  so  as  in  some  two  or  three  meetings 
they  lovingly  accorded  upon  these  ensueing  articles"; 
and  on  May  29,  1643,  the  articles  were  signed  by  all 
except  the  Plymouth  commissioners,  who  had  not 
then  sufficient  authority;  but  soon  afterward  they 
were  ratified  by  Plymouth  also. 

The  people  of  the  province  of  Maine,  we  are  told  by 
AVinthrop,  "were  not  received  nor  called  into  con 
federation,  because  they  ran  a  different  course  from 
us  both  in  their  ministry  and  civil  administration;  for 
they  had  lately  made  Acomenticus  (a  poor  village) 
a  corporation,  and  had  made  a  taylor  their  mayor, 
and  had  entertained  one  Hull,  an  excommunicated 
person,  and  very  contentious,  for  their  minister." 
Making  a  "taylor"  their  mayor  might  have  been 
forgiven,  but  not  the  entertainment  of  the  excom 
municated  Hull  for  their  minister. 

Winthrop  does  not  tell  us  why  the  people  of  Rhode 
Island  were  "not  received  nor  called  into  the  confed 
eration,"  but  we  know  very  well  why  they  were  not. 
The  pestiferous  malcontents,  herded  together  there, 
had,  until  that  period,  employed  their  time  and  their 
energies  chiefly  in  quarreling  among  themselves,  and 
they  were  not  wanted  by  any  of  the  other  colonies, 
certainly  not  by  Massachusetts;  they  had  given  her 
enough  trouble  already.  In  1640  the  General  Court 
had  ordered  the  governor  to  answer  a  letter  sent  to 
him  (but  also  concerning  the  General  Court),  by 
Eaton,  Hopkins,  Haynes,  and  also  by  "Mr.  Cod- 
dington  &  Mr.  Brenton,"  but  the  court  expressly 


308  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

directed  "that  the  answer  shal  bee  directed  to  Mr. 
Eaton,  Mr.  Hopkins  &  Mr.  Haynes  onely,  excluding 
Mr.  Coddington  &  Mr.  Brenton,  as  men  not  to  bee 
capitulated  ivithall  by  MS,  either  for  themselves^  or 
the  people  of  the  Hand  where  they  inhabite,  as  their 
C&se  standeth."1  When  Coddington  and  Partridge,  in 
1648,  in  behalf  of  Rhode  Island,  requested  admission 
into  the  confederation,  their  request  was  denied  by 
the  commissioners  with  frigid  politeness,  accompa 
nied  "with  tender  respects"  and  hopes  for  their 
future  "comfort  and  safety,"  except  upon  the  condi 
tion,  known  to  be  impossible,  that  the  petitioners 
"and  the  inhabitants,  or  the  most  considerable  part 
of  them,  upon  a  due  consideration  of  Plymouth 
patent  and  right,  acknowledge  yourselves  within  that 
jurisdiction."2 

The  articles  of  confederation3  first  declare  the  rea 
sons  which  led  to  their  adoption.  They  set  forth, 
among  other  reasons,  that  they  were  "encompassed 
with  people  of  several  nations  and  strange  languages 
which  hereafter  may  prove  dangerous  to  us  or  our 
posterity";  that  the  natives  had  lately  combined 
against  them;  and  by  reason  of  the  "sad  distrac 
tions"  in  England  they  were  "hindered  both  from 
that  humble  way  of  seeking  advice,  and  reaping, 
those  comfortable  fruits  of  protection  which  at  other' 
times  we  might  well  expect." 

Then    the    confederation    is    named    the  "United 
Colonies  of  New  England." 

Next  follow  minute  provisions  defining  the  powers 

1  Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  i,  p.  305. 
2Hutchinson,  Vol.  i,  pp.  140-141. 
3  Winthrop,  Vol.  2,  pp.  101-106. 


FOUNDATIONS    OF   A    GREATER    REPUBLIC.       309 

of  the  confederation  and  the  authority  and  duties  of 
the  commissioners.  The  confederation  was  to  be, 
"for  offence  and  defence,  mutual  advice  and  succor 
upon  all  just  occasions,  both  for  preserving  and  pro 
pagating  the  truth  and  liberties  of  the  gospel,  and  for 
their  own  mutual  safety  and  welfare";  but  it  was  ex 
pressly  provided  that  the  confederation  should  in  no 
wise  interfere  with  the  local  governments,  and  this 
was  reiterated  in  the  article  defining  the  powers  of 
the  commissioners,  which  expressly  prohibited  them 
"from  intermeddling  with  the  government  of  any  of 
the  jurisdictions." 

In  case  of  war  each  colony  was  to  furnish  soldiers  and 
to  contribute  to  the  expense  in  proportion  to  the  num 
ber  of  its  male  inhabitants  between  sixteen  and  sixty. 
Provisions  were  made  guarding  against  the  danger  of 
any  one  of  the  confederates  rashly  embroiling  the 
others  in  an  unjustifiable  war.  It  was  provided  that 
no  new  member  should  be  received  into  the  con 
federation,  nor  should  any  two  of  the  members  unite, 
without  the  consent  of  the  rest.  Each  colony  was  to 
be  represented  in  the  confederation  by  two  commis 
sioners,  "all  in  church-fellowship  with  us,"  and  gen 
eral  authority  was  granted  to  the  commissioners  to 
execute  the  purposes  of  the  confederation.  These 
were  to  meet  once  a  year,  or  oftener  in  case 
of  an  emergency.  The  first  and  second  meetings 
were  to  be  held  at  Boston,  the  third  at  Hartford, 
the  fourth  at  New  Haven,  the  fifth  at  Plymouth,  the 
sixth  and  seventh  at  Boston,  and  so  on  until  some 
more  central  place  could  be  found,  "commodious  for 
all  the  jurisdictions." 


310  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

The  commissioners  were  authorized  to  select  a 
president  from  their  number,  but  it  was  expressly 
provided  that  he  should  have  no  veto  power.  Power 
was  given  to  the  commissioners  "to  hear,  examine, 
weigh  and  determine  all  affairs  of  w^ar  or  peace, 
leagues,  aids,  charges  and  number  of  men  for  war, 
division  of  spoils  or  whatever  is  gotten  by  conquest; 
receiving  of  more  confederates  or  plantations  into 
the  combination  with  any  of  these  confederates  and 
all  things  of  like  nature  which  are  the  proper  con 
comitants  or  consequents  of  such  a  confederation  for 
amity,  offence  and  defence,"  with  the  limitation  be 
fore  mentioned  against  intermeddling  with  the  local 
governments. 

The  article  which  conferred  something  like  general 
legislative  power  upon  the  commissioners  was  the 
following: 

"8.  It  is  also  agreed  that  the  commissioners  for  this  con 
federation  hereafter  at  their  meetings,  whether  ordinary  or 
extraordinary,  as  they  may  have  commission  or  opportunity, 
do  endeavor  to  frame  and  establish  agreements  and  orders 
in  general  cases  of  a  civil  nature  wherein  all  the  plantations 
are  interested  for  preserving  peace  amongst  themselves  and 
preventing,  as  much  as  may  be,  all  occasions  of  war  or  dif 
ferences  with  others,  as  about  free  and  speedy  passage  of 
justice  in  each  jurisdiction,  to  all  the  confederates  equally, 
as  to  their  own,  receiving  those  that  remove  from  one  plan 
tation  to  another  without  due  certificates ;  how  all  the  juris 
dictions  may  carry  it  towards  the  Indians,  that  they  neither 
grow  insolent  nor  be  injured  without  due  satisfaction,  lest 
war  break  in  upon  the  confederates  through  miscarriages." 

Besides  defining  the  powers  of  the  commissioners 


FOUNDATIONS    OF   A    GREATER    REPUBLIC.       31! 

several  other  matters  were  agreed  upon  by  the  con 
federates  themselves.  One  was  an  agreement  for 
extraditing  fugitives  from  justice.  Another  was  an 
agreement  for  returning  fugitives  from  service,  which, 
curiously  enough,  was  the  first  fugitive  slave  law 
passed  in  America.  It  provided  that : 

"It  is  also  agreed,  that  if  any  servant  run  away  from  his 
master  into  any  of  these  confederate  jurisdictions,  that  in 
such  case  upon  certificate  of  one  magistrate  in  the  jurisdic 
tion  out  of  which  the  said  servant  fled,  or  upon  other  due 
proof,  the  said  servant  shall  be  delivered  either  to  his  master 
or  any  other  that  pursues  and  brings  such  certificate  or 
proof." 

The  Massachusetts  town  governments  had  devel 
oped  there  and  throughout  New  England  the  idea  of 
local  self-government.  We  see  in  the  articles  of  con 
federation  a  further  development  of  the  same  idea. 
That  idea,  as  before  stated,  was  that  government  of 
all  kinds  should  be  brought  as  near  to  the  people  as 
practicable,  and  that  the  people  of  each  govern 
mental  subdivision,  as  nearly  as  might  be  consistent 
with  the  due  discharge  of  their  duties  to  the  greater 
body  politic,  should  have  supreme  power  over  their 
own  local  affairs.  Therefore,  when  they  adopted 
the  articles  of  confederation,  they  were  particularly 
careful  to  provide  that  the  federal  government  should 
not  "intermeddle"  with  the  government  of  any  of 
the  confederates. 

This  idea  has  never  been  lost  sight  of  in  New 
England.  During  the  civil  war,  in  no  section  of 
the  country  did  the  people  give  to  the  federal  gov 
ernment  a  more  loyal  support;  in  no  part  of  the 


312  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

country  were  the  courts  more  firm  in  upholding  the 
reserved  rights  of  the  states. 

The  doctrine  of  States'  Rights,  as  interpreted  by 
the  Southern  States  in  justification  of  secession,  for 
a  time  brought  into  greater  prominence  the  neces 
sity  of  a  strong  federal  power.  Other  emergencies 
are  likely  to  arise  when  greater  power  will  be  claimed 
for  the  federal  government.  But  it  would  be  well 
for  us  to  remember  that,  to  the  preservation  of  the 
republic,  it  is  as  essential  to  maintain  firmly  the  re 
served  rights  of  the  states,  as  it  is  to  maintain  the 
powers  conceded  to  the  federal  government.  To 
concentrate  power  in  the  federal  government  by  de 
stroying  the  rights  of  the  states  is  to  insure  despot 
ism.  We  see  in  the  articles  of  confederation  an  out 
line  of  this  idea,  which,  though  but  an  outline,  is, 
nevertheless,  clearly  drawn. 

We  do  not  find  in  these  articles  the  elaborate  pro 
visions  which  we  find  in  the  present  constitution  of 
the  United  States,  but  we  find  in  them  the  germ  of 
a  greater  republic.  Indeed,  these  articles  are  im 
portant,  not  only  for  what  they  contain,  but  for  what 
they  suggest.  In  them  is  crystallized  the  idea  of  the 
republic  of  to-day.  In  his  address  above  referred  to, 
Mr.  Adams  says: 

"The  distribution  of  power  between  the  commissioners  of 
the  whole  confederacy  and  the  separate  governments  of  the 
colonies  was  made  upon  the  same  identical  principles  with 
those  which  gathered  and  united  the  thirteen  English 
colonies,  as  the  prelude  to  the  revolution  which  severed 
them  for  ever  from  their  national  connection  with  Great 
Britain.  The  New  England  confederacy  of  1643  was  tne 


FOUNDATIONS    OF   A    GREATER    REPUBLIC.       313 
model  and  prototype  of  the  North  American  confederacy  of 

1774." 

The  government  of  the  United  Colonies  of  New 
England  is  as  crude  and  simple,  when  compared 
with  the  present  elaborate  federal  government,  as 
Fulton's  first  boat  launched  upon  the  Hudson  would 
seem  to  be  if  laid  alongside  one  of  the  magnificent 
steamers  of  the  Fall  River  line.  Still  the  United 
Colonies  of  New  England  made  the  beginning. 
The  idea  suggested  was  never  forgotten.  It  was  de 
veloped  in  the  time  of  the  Revolutionary  War.  It 
suggested  the  feasibility  and  the  power  of  a  united 
New  England,  and  a  united  New  England  proved 
the  feasibility  and  the  power  of  the  United  States. 
Indeed,  without  a  united  New  England  there  would 
have  been  no  possibility  of  the  United  States,  and 
to-day  England,  instead  of  ruling  over  the  Dominion 
of  Canada,  would,  in  all  likelihood,  have  been  ruling 
over  the  Dominion  of  America. 

At  the  date  of  the  adoption  of  the  articles  of  con 
federation  there  were  in  Massachusetts  thirty  towns 
with  a  population  of  about  fifteen  thousand;  in  Ply 
mouth  eight,  with  a  population  of  about  three  thou 
sand;  in  Connecticut  six,  with  a  population  of  about 
three  thousand;  in  New  Haven  five,  with  a  popula 
tion  of  about  two  thousand  five  hundred. 

The  history  of  the  United  Colonies  of  New  Eng 
land  is  not  within  the  scope  of  this  volume.  Its 
proceedings  were  not  always  harmonious.  Subse 
quent  events  exposed  the  weaknesses,  but  they  also 
demonstrated  the  advantages  to  the  colonists  of  the 
confederation.  They  likewise  disclosed  to  the  Eng- 


314  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

lish  rulers  the  disadvantages  and  dangers  likely  to 
result  to  England  from  such  a  union  of  the  colonies. 
For  the  confederates  made  treaties  with  their  Dutch 
and  French  neighbors  and  exercised  other  powers 
usually  regarded  as  incident  only  to  sovereign  juris 
diction.  All  this  was  calculated  to  arouse  the  jeal 
ousy  and  to  inflame  the  resentment  of  the  English  rul 
ers  who  looked  upon  the  confederation  as  designed 
to  pave  the  way  to  independence.  "In  this  light," 
says  Chalmers,1  "was  their  conduct  seen  in  England, 
and  at  a  subsequent  period  did  not  fail  to  attract  the 
attention  of  Charles  II." 

All  that  need  be  added  is  that  the  last  meeting  of 
the  confederate  commissioners  was  held  in  Hartford 
on  September  5,  1684,  and  that  when  the  Massachu 
setts  commonwealth  went  down  it  was  all  that  re 
mained  of  the  colonial  governments  which  had 
formed  the  United  Colonies  of  New  England.  Ply 
mouth  had  never  had  a  charter 5  New  Haven  had 
been  absorbed  in  Connecticut;  the  people  of  Connect 
icut  had  in  vain  sought  to  baffle  Andros  by  hiding 
their  charter  in  an  oak  tree,  and  the  secretary,  John 
Allyn,  had  closed  the  colonial  records  with  the  single 
but  expressive  word,  "Finis." 

1  Annals,  p.  178. 


XV 

THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  INDEPENDENCE  AND  THE 
REVOCATION  OF  THE  CHARTER— GENESIS  OF 
A  STILL  GREATER  REPUBLIC 

JUST  when  or  how  the  idea  originated  it  is  difficult 
to  determine,  but  it  is  certain  that,  long  before  the 
end  of  the  commonwealth,  the  colonists  had  formed 
the  idea  of  setting  up  for  themselves  an  independent 
government. 

When  our  ancestors,  nearly  one  hundred  years 
after  the  revocation  of  the  charter,  put  forth  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  they  had  become  im 
bued  with  ideas  of  " inherent"  and  "unalienable" 
rights,  of  which  the  colonists  in  the  beginning  of  the 
commonwealth  probably  had  no  conception  at  all,  or, 
at  least,  no  clearly  defined  conception.  Moreover, 
none  of  the  chief  reasons  given  in  the  Declaration  for 
severing  allegiance  to  the  mother  country  came  into 
existence  until  many  years  after  the  founding  of  the 
commonwealth.  We  read  in  that  Declaration  the 
American  indictment  of  George  III,  but  in  the  for 
midable  list  of  offenses  charged,  we  find  none  that 
could  have  been  charged  against  any  of  the  English 
sovereigns  who  preceded  Charles  II,  and  but  few 
that  could  justly  have  been  charged  against  even  that 
dissolute  monarch. 

(315) 


316  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

No  royal  governor  tyrannized  over  Massachusetts 
until  Andros  came;  and,  until  the  reign  of  Charles 
II,  the  sovereign  power  of  England  rested  so  lightly 
upon  Massachusetts  that  it  was  scarcely  felt  in  that 
portion  of  the  English  realm.  The  first  of  the  odious 
navigation  acts  was  not  passed  until  1651  and  this 
was  a  dead  letter  in  Massachusetts  until  after  the  ac 
cession  of  Charles  II.  Nor  was  any  serious  effort 
made  to  enforce  the  later  and  more  stringent  navi 
gation  acts  until  1676. 

The  colonists  prior  to  the  accession  of  Charles  II 
were  not  influenced  so  much  in  their  desire  for  inde 
pendence  by  what  they  had  already  suffered  from 
abuses  of  royal  authority,  for  they  had  suffered  very 
little  in  this  way,  as  they  were  by  the  apprehension 
of  what  might,  and  probably  would,  follow  if  royal 
authority  should  be  fully  extended  and  exercised  over 
them.  They  could  easily  see  that  an  established 
church  in  America  would  be  as  hostile  to  them  here 
as  in  England;  that  royal  governors  and  officers,  act 
ing  under  the  orders  of  men  like  Laud,  probably 
would  be  as  tyrannical  here  as  in  England.  They 
could  see  how  the  navigation  acts,  when  enforced  by 
their  enemies,  might  be  used  to  cripple  their  com 
merce  and  manufactures,  and  that  the  spirit  of  hos 
tility  displayed  in  the  acts  already  passed  would  be 
likely  to  inspire  others  still  more  oppressive. 

Moreover,  the  Massachusetts  colonists  had  before 
their  eyes  the  royal  government  of  Virginia,  and  it 
was  such  as  to  make  them  dread  the  establishment  of 
a  similar  government  over  them.  The  ingratitude  of 
Charles  II  to  his  old  friends  in  England  who  had 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  317 

clung  to  him  in  his  days  of  adversity  was  proverbial. 
"With  regard  to  the  act  of  indemnity  and  oblivion, 
they  universally  said  that  it  was  an  act  of  indemnity 
to  the  king's  enemies  and  of  oblivion  to  his  friends."1 

His  shameful  treatment  of  the  Virginia  colonists 
proved  that  he  was  as  ungrateful  to  his  friends  in 
America  as  he  was  to  his  friends  in  England.  Of  all 
his  American  subjects,  those  of  Virginia  had  been 
the  most  loyal  to  him,  and  they  were  the  only  ones 
on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  who  greeted  his  restora 
tion  with  genuine  enthusiasm.  He  had  scarcely  been 
seated  upon  his  throne  when  he  began  to  impose 
harsh  restrictions  and  burdens  upon  the  Virgin 
ians  ,  more  intolerable  even  than  those  which  had 
been  imposed  by  Cromwell,  their  professed  enemy. 
Indeed  the  king's  treatment  of  his  Virginia  subjects 
could  not  have  been  harsher  and  more  cruel  if  he 
had  selected  them  as  special  objects  of  his  vengeance. 

Subsequent  events  proved  that  the  evils  which  the 
Massachusetts  colonists  apprehended  as  the  probable 
results  of  the  extension  over  them  of  royal  govern 
ment  were  not  the  mere  forebodings  of  a  gloomy 
imagination.  The  outrageous  acts  of  oppression 
which  they  suffered  during  the  administration  of 
Andros,  the  first  royal  governor,  far  surpassed  any 
which  before  that  time  could  have  been  foretold  or 
suspected. 

The  grievances  complained  of  in  later  years  gave 
the  Massachusetts  colonists  much  broader  and  better 
grounds  upon  which  to  base  their  complaints  than 
any  that  could  be  found  in  supposed  violations  of 

1  Hume,  History  of  England,  Vol.  5,  Chap.  LXIII. 


318  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

their  charter  and  furnished  a  solid  foundation  for  the 
Declaration  of  Independence;  but  in  the  early  years 
of  the  commonwealth  these  grievances  had  scarcely 
been  felt,  and  they  were  only  anticipated.  Still, 
it  can  not  be  doubted  that  such,  or  similar,  griev 
ances  were  anticipated,  and  that  the  sagacity  which 
enabled  the  wiser  heads  among  the  colonists  to  fore 
see  them,  made  them  desirous  of  guarding  against 
them.  This  is  the  key  which  opens  to  us  a  clear 
understanding  of  all  their  conduct  toward  the  Eng 
lish  rulers. 

Whenever  or  however  the  idea  of  an  independent 
government  first  took  definite  shape,  the  inference, 
from  many  sources,  is  clear  that,  long  before  the 
year  1676,  the  colonists  were  contemplating  the  set 
ting  up  of  an  independent  government  and  were 
seeking  to  find  some  good  reasons  for  so  doing. 
Winthrop,  indeed,  had  said  that,  if  the  safety  of  the 
commonwealth  should  require  it,  the  colonists  would 
be  justified  in  renouncing  the  authority  of  England, 
although  this  general  statement  conveys  no  definite 
idea  of  the  grounds  which  Winthrop  himself  thought 
would  justify  such  a  course. 

In  casting  about  for  some  solid  foundation  upon 
which  to  base  their  claim  of  right  to  exercise  the 
powers  of  government  assumed  by  them,  it  was 
natural  that  the  colonists  should  attempt  to  find  a 
basis  in  the  charter  or  " patent,"  as  it  was  usually 
styled  by  them,  granted  by  King  Charles  I. 
They  had  brought  with  them  all  the  English 
reverence  for  charters.  To  Englishmen  Magna 
Charta  is  the  most  sacred  of  all  human  docu- 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  319 

ments.  For  ages  London  has  tenaciously  clung 
to  the  charter  granted  by  William  the  Conqueror 
and  confirmed  by  many  later  monarchs.  In  the 
eyes  of  an  Englishman  a  charter  granted  by  his  sov 
ereign  is  of  so  sacred  and  binding  a  character  that  it 
can  not  lawfully  be  revoked  by  the  king  himself  with 
out  the  consent  of  the  corporation  to  which  it  was 
granted.  And  so  the  colonists  maintained  to  the  last 
that  the  king  had  no  right  to  revoke  the  charter  given 
to  them. 

But  there  was  this  marked  difference  between  an 
Englishman's  view  of  a  charter,  and  the  colonists' 
view  of  the  one  granted  them  by  Charles  I.  Eng 
lishmen  look  upon  a  charter  granted  them  as  a  royal 
guaranty  to  them  of  their  rights  as  subjects'  the  col 
onists  viewed  the  charter  granted  to  them  as  a  sort 
of  compact  guaranteeing  to  them  the  right  to  set  up 
an  independent  government  of  their  own. 

Of  course  it  is  impossible  to  reconcile  such  a  claim 
with  an  acknowledgment  that  there  was  left  any 
residuum  of  allegiance  owed  to  England.  The  col 
onists,  indeed,  as  will  be  seen  hereafter,  did  try  to 
demonstrate  how  they  could  be  independent  and  at 
the  same  time  owe  allegiance  to  England,  but  the 
experiment  was  a  failure,  because  it  was  an  attempt 
to  reconcile  two  diametrically  opposite  and  irrecon 
cilable  propositions. 

Nevertheless,  the  colonists  persisted  in  maintain 
ing  their  claim  of  right  to  carry  on  an  independent 
government,  and  the  only  available  foundation,  nar 
row  as  it  was,  upon  which  to  base  this  claim,  was 
their  charter.  They  came,  by  a  slow  and  curious 


320  THE  PURITAN  REPUBLIC. 

process  of  reasoning,  to  the  conclusion  that  this  was 
not  a  mere  concession  of  the  sovereign  to  his  sub 
jects,  but  a  compact  between  them  by  which  the  sov 
ereign  had  relinquished  a  large  part  of  the  sovereign 
power  and  had  bound  his  subjects  only  to  a  vague 
and  shadowy  sort  of  allegiance,  resting  for  its  security 
upon  the  inclination  of  the  colonists  more  than  upon 
the  reserved  rights  of  the  sovereign. 

Their  reasoning  in  support  of  this  construction  of 
their  charter  was,  in  substance,  that  they  had  pur 
chased  the  land  they  occupied  from  the  Indians,  the 
first  occupants,  whose  title  was  superior  to  that  of 
the  English  government  and  was  recognized  by  it* 
that  they  had  also  bought  all  the  title  of  the  English 
claimants;  that  they  had  transplanted  themselves  to 
this  " remote  corner  of  the  earth"  at  large  expense, 
and  by  their  industry  had  given  it  all  the  value  it 
had;  and  that  for  these  reasons  they  had  acquired 
the  right  to  their  possessions  and  the  right  to  govern 
them  as  they  saw  fit,  without  interference  by  the 
English  government.1 

This  reasoning  is  not  entirely  satisfactory,  but  at 
that  time  it  was  the  best  that  could  be  contrived. 

Convincing  proof  that  the  colonists  wished,  not 
only  to  sever  their  connection  with  the  established 
church,  but  also  to  sever  their  connection  with  the 
established  government  of  England,  although  at  that 
time  they  may  not  fully  have  determined  to  do  so, 
is  found  in  their  conduct  toward  Cromwell  and  his 
son.  Their  shyness  of  doing  or  saying  anything 
that  might  afford  an  excuse  to  an  English  king  or 

1See  Hutchinson,  Vol.  i,  pp.  230-231. 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  321 

Parliament  to  interfere  with  their  own  religious  be 
liefs  and  practices  can  readily  be  understood.  But 
they  had  no  fear  of  such  interference  by  Cromwell 
or  his  son.  And  yet  the  commonwealth  authorities 
were  as  slow  to  recognize  any  right  of  Cromwell  and 
the  Long  Parliament  to  interfere  with  the  govern 
ment  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  as  they  were  in  con 
ceding  such  right  to  the  rulers  who  preceded  or  to 
those  who  followed  them. 

As  the  colonists  did  not  derive  authority  to  govern 
themselves  from  any  " inherent"  or  "unalienable  " 
rights,  but  from  their  charter,  the  preservation  of  it 
was  the  one  thing  at  all  times  uppermost  in  their 
minds.  This  is  manifest  in  all  their  official  corre 
spondence  with  the  king,  in  their  conduct  toward  the 
agents  and  commissioners  sent  hither  by  him,  and  in 
their  instructions  to  the  agents  sent  over  by  the 
colonists  to  England.  So  viewing  their  charter,  it 
became,  in  the  eyes  of  the  colonists,  of  vastly  greater 
consequence  than  was  even  Magna  Charta  in  the 
eyes  of  Englishmen,  In  their  long  and  arduous 
struggle  to  preserve  the  document  so  highly  prized 
by  them  they  were  striving,  not  so  much  to  maintain 
their  rights  as  English  subjects,  as  they  were  to  main 
tain  their  supposed  rights  as  citizens  of  an  independ 
ent  government;  so  that  in  reality  their  struggle  to 
prevent  the  overthrow  of  the  charter  was  a  struggle 
for  independence,  and  in  this  struggle  we  may  find 
the  seeds  of  the  American  Revolution.  From  the 
time  when  Charles  II  began  his  attempt  to  enforce 
in  the  Massachusetts  colony  the  unjust  and  oppres- 

PUR.  REP. — 21 


322  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

sive  navigation  acts,  the  contest  for  independence 
becomes  more  clearly  defined  and  more  determined, 
and  the  ground  and  justice  of  the  claims  of  the 
colonists  become  more  apparent.  From  this  period 
to  the  end  of  the  commonwealth  the  path  leading  to 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  American 
Revolution  is  straight  and  clearly  marked. 

The  troubles  of  the  colonists  with  England  began 
very  soon  after  they  had  set  up  their  government. 
At  that  time  the  governmental  control  of  the  colonies 
was  vested  in  the  Privy  Council.  But  in  1634  ^  was 
transferred  to  a  board  called  the  Lords  Commission 
ers  for  Plantations,  of  which  Laud  was  at  the  head. 
In  consequence  of  complaints  against  the  colonists, 
an  order  of  the  Privy  Council  had  been  made  in 
1633-4  requiring  Mr.  Craddock,  one  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  company,  to  produce  before  the  board  the 
letters  patent,  and  it  seems  that  not  until  then  was  it 
discovered  by  the  King  and  his  council  that  the  char 
ter  was  in  America.  The  governor  and  assistants, 
on  being  informed  of  the  demand  for  the  charter, 
declared  that  nothing  could  be  done  until  the  meet 
ing  of  the  General  Court  in  September;  but  the  Gen 
eral  Court  did  nothing  except  to  order  the  erection 
of  fortifications,  and  in  January  following,  the  min 
isters,  who  had  been  consulted,  agreed  that  the  col 
onists  ought  not  to  accept  a  governor,  if  sent,  but 
"to  defend  our  lawful  possessions  if  we  are  abel; 
otherwise  to  avoide  or  -protract"  Additional  war 
like  preparations  were  made,  but  the  General  Court 
took  no  further  notice  of  the  demand  for  the  return 
of  the  charter. 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  323 

The  next  step  of  the  authorities  in  England  was 
to  institute  quo  ivarranto  proceedings  against  the 
company  for  a  forfeiture  of  its  charter.  These  were 
begun  in  June,  1635,  and  a  judgment  was  rendered 
against  the  patentees  then  residing  in  England.  But 
six  of  the  original  patentees  were  then  in  New  En 
gland,  and  as  the  process  of  the  Court  of  King's 
Bench,  in  which  the  proceedings  were  instituted,  did 
not  extend  to  New  England,  no  judgment  could  be 
rendered  against  them,  and,  therefore,  according  to 
the  opinion  of  the  crown  lawyers,  the  quo  nvarranto 
proceedings  did  not  work  a  forfeiture  of  the  charter. 
Further  orders  were  sent  by  the  Lords  Commission 
ers  for  Plantations  to  the  governor  and  assistants  to 
return  the  charter.  In  response  to  these  the  General 
Court  made  a  diplomatic  answer,  prepared  by  Win- 
throp,  September  6,  I638,1  but  it  still  held  fast  to  the 
document  itself.  Another  peremptory  demand  for 
the  return  of  the  charter  was  made  in  1639,  DU^  the 
General  Court  made  no  answer  to  it. 

The  Lords  Commissioners  for  Plantations  had  au 
thority  to  revoke  the  charter  "if,  upon  view  ofit" 
they  found  anything  hurtful  to  the  king,  his  crown 
or  prerogative,  etc.,  but  this  power  could  be  exer 
cised,  so  it  was  claimed,  only  upon  view  of  the  charter 
itself  and  not  upon  view  of  a  copy  of  it,  and,  therefore, 
so  long  as  the  charter  could  be  kept  out  of  sight  of 
the  commissioners  there  was  no  danger  of  a  revoca 
tion  of  it.  Thus  the  charter  was  saved  a  second 
time  by  a  legal  technicality. 

By  this  time  the  attention  of  the  king  was  taken 

1  Palfrey.  Vol.  i,  p.  557. 


324  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

up  with  affairs  in  England  more  than  with  those  in 
America,  and  after  the  meeting  of  the  Long  Parlia 
ment  in  1640,  the  colonists  had  little  to  fear  from 
royal  interference. 

It  is  important,  however,  to  note  the  attitude  of 
the  Massachusetts  authorities  toward  the  Long  Par 
liament  and  Cromwell.  It  discloses  very  clearly  that 
they  had  no  more  idea  of  voluntarily  surrendering 
their  charter  to  Parliament  than  they  had  of  sur 
rendering  it  to  King  Charles.  It  also  shows,  more 
clearly  than  anything  else,  the  ideas  of  the  colonists 
as  to  the  powers  of  the  government  which  they  had 
established,  and  their  understanding  of  the  allegiance 
they  owed  to  England. 

The  complaints  of  Samuel  Gorton,  Dr.  Child  and 
others,  induced  the  parliamentary  commissioners  in 
1646  to  address  to  the  General  Court  a  communica 
tion  upon  the  subject.  The  mere  fact  that  the  com 
missioners  were  calling  upon  the  authorities  of  Mas 
sachusetts  to  answer  complaints  against  them,  implied 
a  claim  of  supervisory  jurisdiction,  and  opened  the 
door  to  appeals  to  England.  Thus  there  were  pre 
sented  to  the  General  Court  questions  of  wide  extent 
and  of  the  gravest  import — "in  what  relation  we 
stood  to  the  State  of  England,  whether  our  Govern 
ment  was  founded  upon  our  charter  or  not;  if  so, 
then  what  subjection  we  owed  to  that  State."  These 
questions  were  long  and  carefully  debated,  the  elders, 
as  usual,  being  called  upon  for  advice. 

At  the  outset:  "One  question  was,  whether  we 
should  give  the  Commissioners  their  title,  least  thereby 
iue  should  acknowledge  all  that  power  they  claimed 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  325 

in  our  jurisdiction,  as  well  as  in  other  plantations, 
which  had  not  so  large  a  charter  as  we,"  but  "it 
was  considered  withal  that,  whatever  answer  or  re 
monstrance  we  presented  to  them,  if  their  stile  were 
not  observed,  it  was  doubted  they  would  not  receive 
it."1 

The  more  difficult  question  to  settle,  however, 
was  "in  what  relation  we  stood  to  the  state  of 
England."  The  prevailing  opinion  seemed  to  be 
that  the  charter  gave  them  " 'absolute  power  of  gov 
ernment;  for  thereby  we  have  power  to  make  laws, 
to  erect  all  sorts  of  magistracy,  to  correct,  punish, 
pardon,  govern  and  rule  the  -people  absolutely. ,"2 

Upon  the  question  of  allowing  appeals  it  was 
"conceived"  by  the  elders,  and  doubtless  approved 
by  the  magistrates,  that: 

"In  point  of  government  we  have  granted  by  patent  such 
full  and  ample  power  of  choosing  all  officers  that  shall  com 
mand  and  rule  over  us,  of  making  all  laws  and  rules  of  our 
obedience,  and  of  a  full  and  final  determination  of  all  cases 
in  the  administration  of  justice,  that  no  appeals  or  other 
ways  of  interrupting  our  proceedings  do  lie  against  us"* 

After  such  claims  of  absolute  governmental  powers 
it  is  difficult  to  perceive  what  remnant  of  allegiance 
remained  and  how  to  define  it.  But  some  shadowy 
sort  of  allegiance  to  England  was  admitted,  and  the 
magistrates  undertook  to  define  "what  subjection  we 
owed  to  that  State."  It  was  resolved  by  them  that: 

"We  did  owe  allegiance  and  subjection:      I,  because  our 

1  Winthrop,  Vol.  2,  p.  282. 
*  Winthrop,  Vol.  2,  p.  279. 
t  *  Winthrop,  Vol.  2,  pp.  282-3. 


326          THE  PURITAN  REPUBLIC. 

commonwealth  was  founded  upon  the  power  of  that  State, 
and  so  had  always  been  carried  on.  2,  in  regard  of  the 
tenure  of  our  lands,  of  the  manor  of  East  Greenwich.  3,  we 
depended  upon  them  for  protection,  etc.  4,  for  advice  and 
counsel,  when  in  great  occasions  we  should  crave  it.  5,  in 
the  continuance  of  naturalization  and  free  liegance  of  our 
selves  and  our  posterity.  Yet  we  might  be  still  independent 
in  respect  of  government,  as  Normandy,  Gascoyne,  etc., 
were,  though  they  had  dependence  upon  the  crown  of 
France,  and  the  Kings  of  England  did  homage,  etc.,  yet 
in  point  of  government  they  were  not  dependent  upon 
France.  So  likewise  Burgundy,  Flanders,  etc.  So  the 
Hanse  Towns  in  Germany,  which  have  dependence  upon 
the  Empire,  etc.  And  such  as  are  subject  to  the  imperial 
chamber,  in  some  great  and  general  causes,  they  had  their 
deputies  there,  and  so  were  parties  to  all  orders  there."1 

The  elders  also  attempted  to  define  the  precise 
nature  of  the  allegiance  owed  to  England  as  follows: 

"  I .  We  have  received  the  power  of  our  government  and 
other  privileges  derived  from  thence  by  our  charter.  2 .  We 
owe  allegiance  and  fidelity  to  that  State.  3.  Erecting  such 
a  government  as  the  patent  prescribes  and  subjecting  our 
selves  to  the  laws  here  ordained  by  that  government,  we 
therein  yield  subjection  to  the  State  of  England.  4.  We 
owe  unto  that  State  the  fifth  part  of  gold  and  silver  ore  that 
shall,  etc.  5.  We  depend  upon  the  State  of  England  for 
protection  and  immunities  of  Englishmen,  as  free  deniza- 
tion,  etc."2 

In  all  this  verbiage  we  see  plainly  the  claim  of  in 
dependence  for  the  commonwealth,  but  only  the 

1  Winthrop,  Vol.  2,  pp.  279-80. 
*  Winthrop,  Vol.  2,  p.  282. 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  327 

shadow  of  an  acknowledgment  of  allegiance  to  Eng 
land.  No  such  claim,  however,  was  hinted  at  in 
any  address,  or  entered  upon  the  records  of  the  Gen 
eral  Court,  and  we  know  of  it  only  from  the  pages 
of  Winthrop's  journal.  When  in  1661  the  General 
Court  entered  upon  the  records  its  declaration  of  the 
colonists'  rights  under  the  charter,  "  Concerning  our 
liberties,"  and  " Concerning  our  dutyes  of  allegiance 
to  our  soveraigne  Lord  the  King,"  the  declaration 
was  couched  in  language  which  gave  no  intimation 
of  the  enlarged  views  on  these  subjects  expressed  by 
the  magistrates  and  the  elders  in  the  secret  consulta 
tions  held  by  them  when  preparing  the  petition  to 
the  Long  Parliament.1 

Nor  did  the  Massachusetts  authorities  deem  it  safe 
to  petition  for  enlarged  powers.  To  do  this  would 
be  inconsistent  with  their  assumption  that  the  powers 
which  they  already  possessed  were  ample  enough. 
Moreover,  if  Parliament  should  begin  tinkering  their 
charter,  some  of  these  powers  might  be  curtailed  in 
stead  of  being  enlarged. 

It  was  therefore  resolved  to  send  agents  to  England. 
The  elders  advised  that  these,  if  they  should  " dis 
cern  the  mind  of  the  parliament  toward  us,"  to  be 
"propense  and  favorable,"  and  "a  fit  season"  should 
occur,  should  endeavor  " to  procure  such  countenance 
of  our  proceedings,  and  confirmation  of  our  just 
power,  as  may  prevent  such  unjust  complaints  and 
interruptions  as  now  disturb  our  administrations. 
But  if  the  parliament  should  be  less  inclinable  to  us, 

1  See  Hutchinson,  Vol.  i,  App.  pp.  455-6. 


328  THE  PURITAN  REPUBLIC. 

we  must  wait  upon  providence  for  the  preservation 
of  our  just  liberties."1 

The  agent  selected  was  Edward  Winslow,  than 
whom  no  better  could  have  been  chosen.  Besides 
his  commission,  he  was  furnished  with  a  set  of  gen 
eral  instructions  and  also  with  another  set  "more 
secret,"  which  contained  specific  directions  for  his 
guidance  in  making  answers  to  various  anticipated 
objections  to  the  proceedings  of  the  commonwealth. 
One  of  these  was  " about  our  subjection  to  England," 
and  another  was  "about  our  independency  upon  that 
State,"  and  the  answers  which  he  was  directed  to 
make  to  these  objections  embodied  substantially 
what  had  before  been  determined  by  the  magistrates 
and  the  elders.  One  of  the  answers  directed  to  be 
made  "about  our  subjection  to  England,"  had  not 
before  been  "conceived,"  even  by  the  elders,  and 
exhibited  additional  evidence  of  the  allegiance  of  the 
colonists  in  this,  that  they  were  "faithful  and  firm  to 
the  state  of  England,  endeavoring  to  walk  with  God 
in  upholding  his  truth,  etc.,  and  -praying for  z/."2 

A  "remonstrance  and  a  petition"  to  the  parliamen 
tary  commissioners  was  also  prepared.  In  this  the 
colonists  protested  against  any  action  by  that  body 
which  might  be  construed  as  a  precedent  "prejudi 
cial  to  the  liberties"  granted  by  their  charter,  lest 
"when  times  may  be  changed,  for  all  things  be 
low  are  subject  to  vanity,  and  other  princes  or  par 
liaments  may  arise,  the  generations  succeeding  may 
not  have  cause  to  lament  and  say:  'England  sent 

1  Winthrop,  Vol.  2,  p.  283. 

2  Winthrop,  Vol.  2,  pp.  300-301. 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  329 

our  fathers  forth  with  happy  liberties,  which  they  en 
joyed  many  years,  notwithstanding  all  the  enmity 
and  opposition  of  the  prelacy  and  other  potent  ad 
versaries  ;  how  came  we  to  lose  them,  under  the 
favor  and  protection  of  that  state,  in  such  a  season 
when  England  itself  recovered  its  own?" 

The  complaints  of  Gorton  and  the  others  came  to 
naught.  After  the  parliamentary  commissioners  had 
read  the  petition  and  remonstrance  of  the  General 
Court,  and  had  heard  the  evidence  that  Winslow 
produced,  "it  pleased  the  Lord,"  says  Winthrop, 
"to  bring  about  the  hearts  of  the  Committees,  so  as 
they  discerned  of  Gorton,  etc.,  what  they  were  and 
of  the  justice  of  our  proceedings  against  them." 
The  commissioners  also  wrote  assuring  the  General 
Court  that,  in  entertaining  the  complaints  of  Gorton 
and  the  others,  "we  intended  not  thereby  to  encour 
age  any  appeals  from  your  justice,  nor  to  restrain  the 
bounds  of  your  jurisdiction  to  a  narrower  compass 
than  is  held  forth  by  your  letters  patent,  but  to  leave 
you  with  all  that  freedom  and  latitude  that  may,  in  any 
respect,  be'  duly  claimed  by  you;  knowing  that  the 
limiting  of  you  in  that  kind  may  be  very  prejudicial 
(if  not  destructive)  to  the  government  and  public 
peace  of  the  colony." 

The  execution  of  Charles  I  followed  in  1649.  In 
1651  Parliament,  having  become  incensed  by  the  re 
fusal  of  Virginia  and  some  of  the  other  colonies  to 
acknowledge  its  authority,  determined  to  require  all 
of  them  to  take  out  new  charters,  and  thus  recognize 
its  supremacy.  Winslow  informed  the  General  Court 

1  Winthrop,  Vol.  2,  p.  296. 


330  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

that  it  was  "the  Parliament's  pleasure  that  we  should 
take  a  new  patent  from  them;  and  keep  our  courts 
and  issue  our  warrants  in  their  names."  There  were 
also  ominous  hints  of  sending  over  an  English  gov 
ernor. 

This  startling  information  caused  grave  apprehen 
sions,  but  the  General  Court,  taking  its  usual  time 
for  deliberation,  delayed  sending  its  answer  for  a 
year.  Then  the  authorities  prepared  a  petition  to 
Parliament  in  which  they  protested  against  "  being 
wrapped  up  in  one  bundle  with  all  the  other  colonies," 
assuring  the  Parliament  that,  "since  the  first  begin 
ning  of  your  differences  with  the  late  king  and  the 
warre  that  after  ensued,  we  have  constantly  adheared 
to  you,"  and  on  that  account  had  " suffered  the 
hatred  and  threats  of  other  English  colonies,  now  in 
rebellion  against  you,"  and  hoping  that  it  would 
"goe  no  worse  with  us  than  it  did  under  the  late 
king." 

The  petition  set  forth  such  plausible  arguments, 
couched  in  such  pious  phraseology,  that  it  quite  won 
over  those  to  whom  it  was  addressed.1  The  General 
Court,  however,  as  an  extra  precaution,  addressed  a 
letter  to  "the  right  honorable,  his  Excellence,  the 
Lord  Generall  CromwelL"  setting  forth  their  desires, 
requesting  his  intercession  with  Parliament  in  their 
behalf,  and  praying  "that  the  Captain  of  the  hoast 
of  Israeli  may  be  with  you  and  your  whole  army,  in 
all  your  great  enterprises,  to  the  glorie  of  God,  the 
subdueing  of  his  and  your  enemies,  and  your  ever 
lasting  peace  and  comfort  in  Jesus  Christ."2 

1  Hutchinson,  Vol.  i,  App.  p.  448. 

2  Hutchinson,  Vol.  i,  App.  p.  450. 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  331 

The  petition  to  Cromwell  was  as  pleasing  and  as 
effective  as  was  the  petition  to  Parliament,  and  from 
this  time  to  the  restoration  of  Charles  II  in  1660,  the 
colonists  were  in  such  favor  with  the  Protector  and 
the  leading  authorities  in  England  that  they  gave 
themselves  no  further  concern  about  the  revocation  of 
their  charter.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Puritans 
of  the  Massachusetts  commonwealth  were  pleased  to 
see  Cromwell  ruling  over  England,  but  it  is  equally 
clear  that  they  had  no  idea  of  permitting  him,  if 
they  could  avoid  it,  to  rule  over  them.  In  him  the 
commonwealth  found  a  strong  and  steadfast  friend. 
As  Chalmers  expresses  it,1  "the  winning  courtship  of 
Massachusets  seems  to  have  captivated  the  rugged 
heart  of  Cromwell;  and,  notwithstanding  a  variety 
of  complaints  were  made  to  him  against  that  Colony, 
so  strong  were  his  attachments,  that  all  attempts, 
either  to  obtain  redress  or  to  prejudice  it  in  his  es 
teem  were  to  no  purpose."  The  commonwealth 
retained  his  esteem  though  it  refused  to  accede  to 
his  plan  of  having  the  people  of  Massachusetts  re 
move  and  settle  in  Ireland,  and  also  refused  to  ac 
cede  to  another  plan,  upon  which  he  had  set  his  heart 
still  more  strongly,  of  having  them  abandon  Massa 
chusetts  and  settle  in  Jamaica. 

When  Cromwell  requested  the  Massachusetts  au 
thorities  to  furnish  reinforcements  to  aid  him  in  his 
war  against  the  Dutch,  they  intimated  to  him  that 
they  "considered  themselves  at  liberty  to  continue  in 
peace"  with  their  Dutch  neighbors,  and  that  " ''their 
oivn  act  was  necessary  to  bring  them  into  a  state  of 

t_  *  Annals,  p.  188. 


332  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

war."  Therefore  all  they  did  was  to  "freely  consent 
and  give  liberty  to  his  Highnesses  commissioners, 
Major  Robert  Sedgewick  and  Capt.  John  Leveret,  to 
raise  within  ottr  jurisdiction  the  number  of  five 
hundred  volunteers  to  assist  them  in  their  enterprise 
against  the  Dutch,  provided  the  persons  might  be 
free  from  legal  engagements."1 

No  public  notice  was  taken  of  Cromwell's  death, 
and  the  Massachusetts  authorities  ignored  the  order 
of  the  Council  of  State  of  England  to  proclaim  his 
son  as  his  successor. 

One  important  act  passed  in  1651  is  mentioned 
here  to  explain  more  fully  what  follows.  This  was 
the  navigation  act,  which  was  entitled  uAn  act  for  In 
crease  of  Shipping  and  Encouragement  of  the  Navi 
gation  of  this  Nation."  The  substance  of  it  was,  so 
far  as  it  affected  the  American  colonies,  to  prohibit 
the  ex-port  therefrom  of  any  goods  or  commodities 
except  in  .  English  vessels.  But  this  act  was  passed 
chiefly  to  strengthen  the  English  navy  and  as  a  war 
measure  to  cripple  the  Dutch,  and,  though  enforced 
against  the  southern  colonies,  it  remained  during 
Cromwell's  time  a  dead  letter  in  Massachusetts. 

The  years  intervening  between  the  meeting  of  the 
Long  Parliament,  in  1640,  and  the  accession  of 
Charles  II,  in  1660,  were  years  of  great  prosperity 
in  the  Massachusetts  commonwealth.  After  the 
Pequot  war  peaceful  relations  were  maintained  with 
the  Indians;  population  rapidly  increased;  many  new 
towns  were  established;  agriculture  flourished;  com 
merce  expanded;  Boston  assumed  the  character  of  a 

1Hutchinson,  Vol.  i,  pp.  16-89. 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  333 

commercial  metropolis,  and  boasted  many  houses 
" large  and  beautiful  whose  continual  enlargement 
presaged  some  sumptuous  city."  Johnson1  gives  us 
this  account  of  the  progress  which  the  colony  had 
made  in  1642: 

"First,  to  begin  with  the  encrease  of  food,  you  have 
heard  in  what  extream  penury  these  people  were  in  at  first 
planting,  for  want  of  food;  gold,  silver,  rayment,  or  what 
soever  was  precious  in  their  eyes,  they  parted  with  (when 
ships  came  in)  for  this;  their  beast  that  died,  some  would 
stick  before  they  were  cold  and  sell  their  poor  pined  flesh 
for  food  at  6d.  per  pound,  Indian  Beans  at  i6s.  per  bushel; 
when  Ships  came  in,  it  grieved  some  Master  to  see  the  urg 
ing  of  them  by  people  of  good  rank  and  quality  to  sell 
bread  unto  them.  But  now  take  notice  how  the  right  hand 
of  the  most  high  hath  altered  all,  and  men  of  the  meaner 
rank  are  urging  them  to  buy  bread  of  them,  and  now  good 
white  and  wheaten  bread  is  no  dainty,  but  even  ordinary 
man  hath  his  choice,  if  gay  cloathing,  and  a  liquerish  tooth 
after  sack,  sugar,  and  plums,  lick  not  away  his  bread  too 
fast,  all  which  are  but  ordinary  among  those  that  were  not 
able  to  bring  their  own  persons  over  at  their  first  coming  ; 
there  are  not  many  Towns  in  the  Country,  but  the  poorest 
person  in  them  hath  a  house  and  land  of  his  own,  and  bread 
of  his  own  growing,  if  not  some  cattel ;  beside  flesh  is  now 
no  rare  food,  beef,  pork,  and  mutton  being  frequent  in 
many  houses,  so  that  this  poor  Wilderness  hath  not  onely 
equalized  England  in  food,  but  goes  beyond  it  in  some 
places  for  the  great  plenty  of  wine  and  sugar,  which  is  or 
dinarily  spent,  apples,  pears  and  quince  tarts,  instead  of 
their  former  Pumpkin  Pies;  Poultry  they  have  plenty,  and 
.great  rarity,  and  in  their  feasts  have  not  forgotten  the 
1  Wonder-  Working  Providence,  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  2d  Ser.,  Vol.  7,  p.  36. 


334  THE  PURITAN  REPUBLIC. 

English  fashion  of  stirring  up  their  appetites  with  variety  of 
cooking  their  food ;      *     *     * 

"Secondly,  For  rayment,  our  cloth  hath  not  been  cut 
short,  as  but  of  late  years  the  traders  that  way  have  en- 
creased  to  such  a  number  that  their  shops  have  continued 
full  all  the  year  long,  all  one  England;  besides,  the  Lord 
hath  been  pleased  to  encrease  sheep  extraordinarily  of  late ; 
hemp  and  flax  here  is  great  plenty,  hides  here  are  more  for 
the  number  of  persons  than  in  England;  and  for  cloth,  here 
is  and  would  be  materials  enough  to  make  it ;  but  the  Farm 
ers  deem  it  better  for  their  profit  to  put  away  their  cattel 
and  corn  for  cloathing,  then  to  set  upon  making  of 
cloth.  *  *  * 

"Further,  the  Lord  hath  been  pleased  to  turn  all  the 
wigwams,  huts,  and  hovels  the  English  dwelt  in  at  their 
first  coming,  into  orderly,  fair,  and  well-built  houses,  well 
furnished  many  of  them,  together  with  Orchards  filled  with 
goodly  fruit  trees,  and  gardens  with  variety  of  flowers. 
There  are  supposed  to  be  in  the  Mattachusets  Government 
at  this  day,  neer  a  thousand  acres  of  land  planted  for  Or 
chards  and  Gardens,  besides  their  fields  are  filled  with  gar 
den  fruit,  there  being,  as  is  supposed  in  this  Colony,  about 
fifteen  thousand  acres  in  tillage,  and  of  cattel  about  twelve 
thousand  neat,  and  about  three  thousand  sheep :  Thus  hath 
the  Lord  incouraged  his  people  with  the  encrease  of  the 
general,  although  many  particulars  are  outed,  hundreds  of 
pounds,  and  some  thousands,  yet  are  there  many  hundreds 
of  labouring  men,  who  had  not  enough  to  bring  them  over, 
yet  now  worth  scores,  and  some  hundreds  of  pounds." 

Johnson  also  gives  us  a  further  account  of  the  con 
dition  of  the  colonists  five  years  later:1 

"The  Lord   is  pleased  also  to  compleat  this  Common- 
*  Mass.  His.  Coll.,  2d  Ser.,  Vol.  8,  p.  12. 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR   INDEPENDENCE.  335 

wealth  abundantly  beyond  all  expectation  in  all  sorts  of 
needful  occupations,  it  being  for  a  long  time  the  great  fear 
of  many,  and  those  that  were  endued  with  grace  from  above 
also,  that  this  would  be  no  place  of  continued  habitation, 
for  want  of  a  staple  commodity,  but  the  Lord,  whose 
promises  are  large  to  his  Sion,  hath  blest  his  peoples  provi 
sion,  and  satisfied  her  poor  with  bread,  in  a  very  little  space, 
everything  in  the  country  proved  a  staple  commodity, 
wheat,  rye,  oats,  peas,  barley,  beef,  pork,  fish,  butter, 
cheese,  timber,  mast,  tar,  sope,  plank-board  frames  of 
houses,  clabboard,  and  pipestaves,  iron  and  lead  is  like  to 
be  also ;  and  those  who  were  formerly  forced  to  fetch  most  of 
the  bread  they  eat,  and  beer  they  drink  a  hundred  leagues 
by  Sea,  are  through  the  blessing  of  the  Lord  so  encreased, 
that  they  have  not  only  fed  their  Elder  Sisters,  Virginia, 
Barbados,  and  many  of  the  Summer  Islands  that  were  pre- 
fer'd  before  her  for  fruitfulness,  but  also  the  Grandmother  of 
us  all,  even  the  fertil  Isle  of  Great  Britain,  beside  Portugal 
hath  had  many  a  mouthful  of  bread  and  fish  from  us,  in  ex 
change  of  their  Madeara  liquor,  and  also  -Spain :  nor  could 
it  be  imagined,  that  this  Wilderness  should  turn  a  mart  for 
Merchants  in  so  short  a  space,  Holland,  France,  Spain  and 
Portugal  coming  hither  for  trade,  shipping,  going  on  gal 
lantly,  till  the  Seas  became  so  troublesome,  and  England 
restrain'd  our  trade,  forbidding  it  with  Barbados,  &c.,  and 
Portugal  stopt  and  took  our  ships ;  many  a  fair  ship 
had  her  framing  and  finishing  here,  besides  lesser  vessels, 
barques  and  ketches,  many  a  Master,  beside  common  Sea 
men,  had  their  first  learning  in  this  Colony,  Boston,  Charles 
Town,  Salem,  and  Ipswitch;  our  Maritan  Towns  began  to 
encrease  roundly,  especially  Boston,  the  which  of  a  poor 
country  village,  in  twice  seven  years  is  become  like  unto  a 
small  City,  and  is  in  election  to  be  Mayor  Town  suddainly, 
chiefly  increased  by  Trade  by  Sea,  yet  of  late  the  Lord 


336  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

hath  given  a  check  to  our  traffique,  but  the  reason  may  be 
rendered  hereafter ;  nor  hath  this  Colony  alone  been  actors 
in  this  trade  of  venturing  by  Sea,  but  New-haven  also,  who 
were  many  of  them  well  experienced  in  traffique,  and  had 
good  estates  to  manage  it,  Canectico  did  not  linger  behind, 
but  put  forth  to  Sea  with  the  other,  all  other  trades  have 
here  fallen  into  their  ranks  and  places,  to  their  great  advan 
tage;  especially  Coopers  and  Shomakers,  who  had  either 
of  them  a  Corporation  granted,  inriching  themseives  by 
their  trades  very  much,  Coopers  having  their  plenty  of  stuff 
at  a  cheap  rate,  and  by  reason  of  trade,  with  forraign  parts 
abundance  of  work,  as  for  Tanners  and  Shomakers,  it  being 
naturalized  into  these  occupations,  to  have  a  higher  reach 
in  mannaging  their  manifactures,  then  other  men  in  N.  E. 
are,  having  not  chang'd  their  nature  in  this,  between  them 
both  they  have  kept  men  to  their  stander  hitherto,  almost 
doubling  the  price  of  their  commodities,  according  to  the 
rate  they  were  sold  for  in  England,  and  yet  the  plenty  of 
Leather  is  beyond  what  they  had,  there  counting  the  number 
of  the  people,  but  the  transportation  of  Boots  and  Shoes 
into  forraign  parts  hath  vented  all  however;  as  for  Tailors, 
they  have  not  come  behind  the  former,  their  advantage 
being  in  the  nurture  of  new-fashions,  all  one  with  England; 
Carpenters,  Joyners,  Glaziers,  Painters,  follow  their  trades 
only;  Gun-smiths,  Lock-smiths,  Black-smiths,  Naylers, 
Cutlers,  have  left  the  husbandmen  to  follow  the  Plow  and 
Cart,  and  they  their  trades,  Weavers,  Brewers,  Bakers, 
Costermongers,  Feltmakers,  Braziers,  Pewterers,  and  Tink 
ers,  Ropemakers,  Masons,  Lime,  Brick,  and  Tilemakers, 
Cardmakers  to  work,  and  not  to  play,  Turners,  Pump- 
makers,  and  Wheelers,  Glovers,  Fellmungers,  and  Furriers, 
are  orderly  turn'd  to  their  trades,  besides  divers  sorts  of 
Shopkeepers,  and  some  who  have  a  mystery  beyond  others, 
as  have  the  Vintners. 

"Thus  hath  the  Lord  been  pleased  to  turn  one  of  the 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  337 

most  hideous,  boundless,  and  unknown  Wildernesses  in  the 
world  in  an  instant,  as  'twere  (in  comparison  of  other  work) 
to  a  well  ordered  commonwealth,  and  all  to  serve  his 
Churches,  of  which  the  Author  intends  to  speak  of  three 
more,  which  came  to  be  gathered  in  the  compass  of  these 
years . ' ' 

Charles  II  came  to  the  throne  in  May,  1660,  and 
from  this  time  forward  the  relations  between  the  col 
onists  and  England  show  more  and  more  clearly 
their  purpose  to  establish  an  independent  govern 
ment*  from  this  time  the  struggle  to  maintain  their 
charter  is  seen  more  and  more  clearly  to  be  a  strug 
gle  for  independence.  In  the  general  acclaim  with 
which  the  restoration  of  Charles  II  was  greeted  by 
his  subjects,  Massachusetts  did  not  join.  No  pro 
clamation  of  his  accession  was  made  there,  nor  was 
any  notice  of  it  entered  on  the  records  of  the  Gen 
eral  Court  until  fifteen  months  afterward,  and  then 
it  was  announced  in  a  proclamation  so  framed,  ac 
cording  to  Chalmers,  that  "the  authority  from  which 
that  monarch  derived  his  kingship  was  carefully  con 
cealed,  in  order  that  the  people  of  that  jurisdiction 
[Massachusetts]  might  consider  the  whole  as  an 
election  recent  and  provincial. ,m  Chalmers  adds 
that  "with  a  characteristic  sourness,  the  General 
Court  published  an  order  on  the  same  day  '  prohibit 
ing  all  disorderly  behaviour,  and  particularly  that  no 
-person  shall  -presume  to  drink  his  majesty1 }s  health?  ' 

Soon  ominous  tidings  began  to  come  from  Eng 
land.  John  Leveret,  the  colonial  agent,  wrote  home 

1  Annals,  p.  253;  Palfrey,  Vol.  2,  pp.  517-518. 
PUR.  REP. — 22 


33 8  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

about  the  changes  which  had  taken  place  there;  how 
"Episcopacy,  Common  Prayer,  bowing  at  the  name 
of  Jesus,  sign  of  the  cross  in  baptism,  the  altar  and 
organs  are  in  use,  and  like  to  be  more."  Com 
plaints  to  the  king  began  to  pour  in  from  Quakers, 
Baptists,  Episcopalians,  and  all  who  had  suffered 
from  the  persecution  or  oppression  of  the  Massachu 
setts  authorities.  It  was  deemed  advisable,  there 
fore,  in  December,  1660,  to  send  addresses  to  the 
king  and  Parliament,  filled  with  professions  of  loy 
alty,  and  to  ask  the  aid  of  influential  persons  in 
England  in  counteracting  the  efforts  of  the  enemies 
of  the  commonwealth. 

John  Eliot,  the  "apostle,"  had  published  a  book, 
entitled  "The  Christian  Commonwealth,"1  in  which 
he  had  outlined  the  framework  of  a  Biblical  com 
monwealth  fashioned  after  the  form  "approved  of 
God,  instituted  by  Moses  among  the  sons  of  Israel," 
with  "rulers  of  thousands,  of  hundreds,  of  fifties, 
and  of  tens,  who  shall  govern  according  to  the  pure, 
holy,  righteous,  perfect  and  good  law  of  God,  writ 
ten  in  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testa 
ment."  He  also  expressed  in  the  book  his  firm  con 
viction  that  the  time  had  come  when  "the  Lord  is 
about  to  shake  all  the  earth  and  throw  down  that 
great  Idol  of  Humane  Wisdome  in  Governments, 
and  set  up  Scripture  Government  in  the  room  there 
of."  The  book  was  visionary  and  the  scheme  pro 
posed  was  impracticable,  but  no  offense  was  taken 
when  the  book  was  published.  Indeed,  it  is  not  im 
probable  that  there  were  many  in  the  commonwealth 

1  The  book  is  reprinted  in  Mass.  His.  Coll.,  3d  Ser.,  Vol.  9. 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  339 

who  thought  Eliot's  scheme  of  government  an  im 
provement  upon  their  own  5  but  in  May,  1661,  the 
General  Court  "taking  notice"  of  the  book  dis 
covered  that  there  were  in  it  "sundry  passages  and 
•expressions"  which  were  "justly  offensive  and  in 
speciall  relating  to  Kingly  Government  in  England," 
and  Eliot  was  compelled  to  make  a  public  retraction. 

No  substantial  change,  however,  was  made  in  the 
form  of  government,  nor  was  any  attention  paid  to 
the  royal  requests,  nor  was  any  substantial  alteration 
made  in  the  laws  passed  in  the  reigns  of  the  king's 
royal  predecessors. 

Soon  after  the  accession  of  Charles  II  a  Council  of 
Foreign  Plantations  was  organized,  and  in  1661 
twelve  Privy  Councillors  were  appointed  a  committee 
upon  the  affairs  of  New  England. 

Among  the  first  acts  passed  after  the  accession  of 
Charles  II  were  the  navigation  acts,  passed  in  1660 
and  1663.  The  navigation  act  of  1651  had  merely 
prohibited  exports  from  the  American  colonies,  but 
the  new  acts  provided  that  "no  commodity  of  the 
growth  or  manufacture  of  Europe,  shall  be  imported 
into  any  of  the  king's  plantations  in  Asia,  Africa,  or 
America,  but  what  have  been  shipped  in  England, 
Wales  or  town  of  Berwick,  and  in  English  built  ship 
ping,  whereof  the  master  and  three-fourths  of  the 
mariners  are  English,  and  carried  directly  thence  to 
the  plantations,"  excepting  salt  for  American  fish 
eries,  wines  from  Madeira  and  the  Azores,  and  pro 
visions  from  Scotland.  The  objects  of  these  acts,  as 
declared  in  the  preambles  to  them,  were  "the  keep 
ing  of  his  Majesty's  subjects  in  the  plantations  in  a 


340  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

firmer  dependence"  the  "  increase  of  English  ship 
ping,"  and  "the  vent  of  English  woolens  and  other 
manufactures  and  commodities."  The  severe  pen 
alty  for  violation  of  either  of  the  acts  was  forfeiture 
of  both  ship  and  cargo. 

Fresh  complaints  began  to  come  to  the  king  con 
cerning  the  doings  of  his  subjects  in  Massachusetts, 
and  the  talk  of  sending  over  a  royal  governor  was 
renewed.  The  Rev.  John  Norton  and  Simon  Brad- 
street  were  sent  as  agents  to  England  with  carefully 
worded  instructions  "to  present  us  to  his  Majesty  as 
his  loyal  and  obedients  subjects,"  and  to  " endeavor 
to  take  off  all  scandal  and  objections  which  are  or 
shall  be  made  against  us,"  but  at  the  same  time  it 
was  specially  enjoined  upon  them  that,  "you  shall 
endeavor  the  establishment  of  the  rights  and  privi 
leges  we  now  enjoy,"  and  that  "you  shall  not  engage 
us  by  any  act  of  yours  to  anything  which  may  be 
prejudicial  to  our  present  standing,  according  to 
patent."1 

Another  address  (dated  June  15,  1661)  was  sent. 
The  king  returned  by  Bradstreet  and  Norton  a  kind 
and  considerate  answer  (dated  June  28,  1662),  de 
signed  to  allay  apprehensions  concerning  the  loss 
of  the  charter,  and  offering  to  renew  it.  But  in 
his  letter  the  king  made  several  demands  which 
were  ill  received  by  the  colonists.  These  were,  in 
substance,  that  all  their  laws  and  ordinances  which 
were  contrary  or  derogative  to  the  king's  authority 
and  government  should  be  repealed;  that  the  charter 
rules  for  administering  and  taking  the  oath  of  allegi- 

1  Palfrey,  Vol.  2,  p.  524. 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR   INDEPENDENCE.  341 

ance  should  be  observed;  that  the  administration  of 
justice  should  be  in  the  king's  name;  that  those  who 
desired  to  use  the  book  of  Common  Prayer  and  to 
worship  after  the  manner  of  the  Church  of  England 
"be  not  denied  the  exercise  thereof,  or  undergo  any 
prejudice  or  disadvantage  thereby,"  and  that  "all 
freeholders  of  competent  estates,  not  vicious  in  con 
versation,  orthodox  in  religion  (though  of  different 
persuasions  concerning  church  government),  may 
have  their  vote  in  the  election  of  all  officers,  civil  and 
military."  The  king  was  careful  to  add  this:  "We 
can  not  be  understood  hereby  to  direct  or  wish  that 
any  indulgence  should  be  granted  to  those  persons, 
commonly  called  Quakers,  whose  principles,  being 
inconsistent  with  any  kind  of  government,  we  have 
found  it  necessary,  with  the  advice  of  our  parliament 
here,  to  make  sharp  laws  against  them,  and  we  are 
well  content  that  you  do  the  like  there."  It  must  be 
admitted  that  the  demands  of  the  king  were  reason 
able,  especially  the  demand  that  the  members  of  his 
own  church  should  enjoy  the  same  religious  free 
dom  which  he  allowed  the  colonists. 

The  letter  of  the  king  returned  by  Bradstreet  and 
Norton  was  received  by  the  General  Court  in  Octo 
ber,  1662,  but  it  was  not  entered  on  the  records  of 
the  General  Court  until  May,  1665,  more  than  two 
years  afterward.1  The  demands  which  it  contained 
were  extremely  distasteful  to  the  authorities  of  Massa 
chusetts.  A  scapegoat  was  sought,  as  is  usual  when 
the  people  are  angry.  In  this  instance  the  blame  was 
laid  on  Norton,  who,  as  some  asserted,  "had  laid  the 

1Mass.  Rec.,  Vol.  4,  Pt.  2,  p.  58. 


342  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

foundation  of  ruin  to  all  our  liberties."  This  was  a 
most  mortifying  accusation  to  one  who,  like  Norton, 
for  so  long  a  time  had  been  so  prominent  and  influ 
ential  among  his  fellow-citizens.  He  drooped  under 
it  and  died  a  few  months  afterward.  The  Quakers, 
it  may  be  added,  did  not  fail  to  interpret  his  death  as 
a  "sign"  of  Divine  vengeance  upon  him  for  the  part 
he  had  taken  in  persecuting  them,  and  they  reported 
it  to  the  king  and  Parliament  as  one  of  the  "remark 
able  judgments"  upon  their  persecutors. 

The  controlling  spirits  in  the  colony  had  no  idea 
of  complying  with  the  demands  of  the  king,  or  of 
acquiescing  in  any  of  his  wishes,  except  the  one  re 
lating  to  the  Quakers,  which  alone  met  with  their 
hearty  approval.  But  as  they  were  not  "abel"  to 
resist  by  arms,  they  again  began  to  "avoide  or  pro 
tract,"  and  to  send  more  addresses.  By  this  time, 
however,  the  king  had  become  satiated  with  ad 
dresses,  and  in  1664  he  sent  two  war  ships  and  sev 
eral  hundred  soldiers  to  Boston,  with  four  commis 
sioners,  to  whom  were  given  "full  power  and  au 
thority  to  heare  and  receive  and  to  examine  and  de 
termine  all  complaints  and  appeales  in  all  causes  and 
matters,  as  well  military  as  criminal  and  civil." 
They  were  also  instructed  "to  see  how  the  charter 
was  maintained  on  their  part."  One  of  the  commis 
sioners  was  Maverick,  a  bitter  enemy  of  the  colo 
nists,  who  had  been  fined,  imprisoned  and  banished 
by  them.  As  soon  as  the  General  Court  was  ap 
prised  of  what  was  coming,  it  ordered  the  hiding  of 
the  charter  and  appointed  messengers  charged, 
among  other  duties,  "to  present  their  respects"  to 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  343 

the  commissioners  and  to  request  that  the  under  of 
ficers  and  sailors  coming  on  shore  "at  no  time  ex 
ceed  a  convenient  number,  and  that  without  arms, 
and  that  they  behave  themselves  orderly  amongst  his 
Majestys  good  subjects  here  and  be  careful  of  giving 
no  offence  to  the  -people  and  laivs  of  this  -place" 
Having  done  this,  the  General  Court  awaited  the 
arrival  of  the  ships.  They  cast  anchor  in  Boston 
harbor  on  July  23,  1664 — the  first  of  the  royal  navy 
that  had  ever  been  seen  there. 

The  commissioners  presented  to  Governor  Endicott 
and  the  magistrates  their  commission  and  instruc 
tions,  together  with  a  letter  to  the  governor  from  the 
king,  in  which  he  stated  that  the  answer  to  his  letter 
sent  by  Bradstreet  and  Norton  "did  not  answer  his 
expectations."  The  instructions  required  the  com 
missioners,  besides  inquiring  into  the  complaints  of 
usurpation  of  authority,  to  inquire  particularly  how 
his  demands  in  the  letter  sent  by  Bradstreet  and 
Norton  had  been  observed. 

Two  other  points  were  impressed  upon  the  com 
missioners  in  a  set  of  private  instructions  to  them. 
One  was  to  secure  to  the  king  the  right  of  nomina 
tion  or  approval  of  the  governor;  the  other  was  that 
the  militia  should  be  put  under  command  of  an  offi 
cer  nominated  or  recommended  by  the  king. 

The  commissioners  desired  that  the  General  Court 
should  be  called  to  consider  the  king's  demands,  but 
excuses  were  given  and  the  General  Court  was  not 
convened  until  after  the  commissioners  had  departed. 
Not  being  able  to  extort  from  the  governor  and  mag 
istrates  any  such  concessions  as  their  instructions 


344  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

called  for,  the  commissioners  did  not  tarry  long  in 
Boston,  but  left  to  settle  matters  in  other  of  the  New 
England  colonies  and  in  New  York,  intending  to 
return  to  Boston  after  this  had  been  accomplished. 
After  the  departure  of  the  commissioners,  the  Gen 
eral  Court  held  a  meeting  and  proceeded  to  repeal 
the  law  limiting  the  right  of  voting  to  church  mem 
bers,  but  immediately  enacted  another  which  re 
quired,  as  a  condition  precedent  to  the  admission  of 
freemen,  "a  certificate  under  the  hands  of  the  min 
ister  or  ministers  of  the  place  where  they  dwell  that 
they  were  orthodox  in  religion  and  not  vicious  in 
their  lives,  &c.,"  thus  practically  leaving  to  the  min 
isters,  as  before,  the  power  of  admitting  to  citizen 
ship.  The  General  Court  also  appointed  a  commit 
tee  to  draw  up  another  address  to  the  king,  petition 
ing  for  a  continuance  of  the  privileges  of  the  charter, 
"  filled  with  such  rational  arguments  as  they  could 
find  to  the  end  aforesaid."  The  petition,  among 
other  "arguments,"  set  forth  that  "This  people  did 
at  their  own  charges  transport  themselves,  their  wives 
and  families  over  the  ocean,  purchase  the  land  of  the 
natives  and  plant  this  colony  with  great  labor,  hazard, 
costs  and  difficulties;  *  *  *  having  also  now 
above  thirty  years  enjoyed  the  aforesaid  power  and 
privilege  of  government  within  themselves,  as  their 
undoubted  right  in  the  sight  of  God  and  man"  and 
especially  protesting  against  the  appointment  and 
authority  of  commissioners  "to  heare,  receive  ex 
amine  and  determine  all  complaints  and  appeals  in 
all  causes  and  matters  as  well  military  as  criminal 
and  civill  *  *  *  whereby  instead  of  being  gov- 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  345 

erned  by  rulers  of  our  own  choosing  (which  is  the 
ftmdamental  -privilege  of  our  patent)  and  by  laws  of 
our  owne,  we  are  like  to  be  subjected  to  the  arbitrary 
power  of  strangers,  proceeding  not  by  any  estab 
lished  law,  but  by  their  own  discretions."  To  this 
address  Clarendon,  then  Lord  Chancellor,  returned 
a  brief  and  caustic  reply,  in  which  he  stated  that  he 
was  "amazed  to  find  that  you  demand  a  revockation 
of  the  commission  and  commissioners  without  laying 
the  least  matter  to  their  charge  of  crymes  or  exor 
bitances";  that  he  knew  not  "what  you  mean  by 
saying  the  commissioners  have  power  to  exercise 
government  there  altogether  inconsistent  with  your 
charter  and  privileges";  insisting  that  "if  in  truth, 
in  any  extraordinary  case,  the  proceedings  there  have 
been  irregular  and  against  the  rules  of  justice,  as 
some  particular  cases,  particularly  recommended  to 
them  by  his  Majesty,  seeme  to  be,  it  can  not  be  pre 
sumed  that  his  Majesty  hath  or  will  leave  his  subjects 
of  New  England  without  hope  of  redresse  by  an  ap- 
peale  to  him,  which  his  subjects  of  his  other  king 
doms  have  free  liberty  to  make."  He  concluded 
with  this  pointed  advice:  "I  can  say  no  more  to  you 
but  that  it  is  in  your  owne  power  to  be  very  happy, 
and  to  enjoy  all  that  hath  been  granted  to  you;  but 
it  -will  be  absolutely  necessary  that  you  performe  and 
pay  all  that  reverence  and  obedience,  which  is  due 
from  subjects  to  their  king,  and  which  his  Majesty 
will  exact  from  you,,  and  doubts  not  but  to  find  from 
the  best  of  that  colony,  both  in  quality  and  in 
numbers."1 

1  Both  the  address  and  Clarendon's  answer  are  given  in  full  in  Hutch- 
inson,  Vol.  i,  Appendix,  pp.  460-465. 


346  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

The  commissioners,  after  leaving  Boston,  went 
first  to  New  York.  They  next  went  to  Plymouth; 
then  to  Rhode  Island;  and  then  to  Connecticut.  To 
each  of  these  were  made  in  substance  the  same  pro 
posals  contained  in  the  letter  of  the  king  sent  by 
Bradstreet  and  Norton  to  Massachusetts,  which  were: 

' '  i .  That  all  householders  should  take  the  oath  of  allegi 
ance,  and  that  justice  should  be  administered  in  the  king's 
name;  2.  That  'all  men  of  competent  estates  and  civil 
conversation,  though  of  different  judgments,  might  be  ad 
mitted  to  be  freeman,  and  have  liberty  to  choose  and  be 
chosen  officers,  both  civil  and  military' ;  3.  That  'all  men 
and  women  of  orthodox  opinions,  competent  knowledge, 
and  civil  lives,  not  scandalous,'  should  be  admitted  to  the 
Lord's  Supper  and  have  their  children  baptized,  either  in 
the  churches  already  existing,  or  in  congregations  of  their 
own;  4.  That  'all  laws,  and  expressions  in  laws,  de 
rogatory  to  his  Majesty,'  should  be  'repealed,  altered,  and 
taken  off  from  the  file.'  " 

In  all  these  colonies  satisfactory  replies  were  re 
ceived  which  elicited  the  commendation  of  the  king. 

Again  the  commissioners  turned  their  steps  to 
Massachusetts  where  the  rebellious  colonists,  now 
left  alone,  awaited  their  coming  without  the  least 
sign  of  fear  or  trembling.  The  commissioners  ar 
rived  in  Boston  in  May.  1665,  and  at  once  resumed 
discussion  with  the  authorities  of  the  demands  of  the 
king.  The  crisis  had  now  arrived  and  it  was  impossi 
ble  longer  to  "avoide  or  protract."  The  General  Court 
met  the  complaints  of  the  commissioners  with  firm 
ness  and  consummate  skill,  denying  some,  justifying 
some,  and  adroitly  parrying  others.  Not  a  single 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  347 

essential  point  in  the  claim  of  the  colonists  was 
yielded  by  the  General  Court,  not  one  of  the  essen 
tial  demands  of  the  king  was  assented  to.  The  cul 
mination  of  the  controversy,  which  lasted  about  a 
month,  was  the  attempt  of  the  commissioners  to  ex 
tort  from  the  General  Court  its  acknowledgment  of 
their  authority  to  sit  as  a  court  of  appeal  for  the 
hearing  of  complaints  against  it. 

After  much  skillful  parrying  by  the  General  Court, 
the  commissioners,  on  May  18,  1665,  thought  to  bring 
discussion  to  a  head  by  a  communication  containing 
this  pointed  inquiry: 

"His  Majesty  sent  us  with  commission  to  sit  as  a  court 
of  appeals  in  these  his  majesty's  dominions;  but  we  are 
told  that  the  inviolable  observation  of  your  charter  seems  in 
consistent  with  our  hearing  and  determining  complaints  and 
appeals ;  whereupon  we  have  thought  it  necessary  to  reduce 
all  the  discourse  thereof  into  one  question,  whereunto  we 
expect  your  positive  answer,  which  we  shall  faithfully  report 
to  his  majesty:  whether  yoti  do  acknowledge  his  majesty's 
commission,  wherein  we  are  nominated  commissioners,  to  be 
of  full  force  to  all  the  intents  and  purposes  therein  con 
tained." 

The  answer  being  evasive  and  unsatisfactory,  Col. 
Nichols,  the  head  of  the  commission,  on  the  same 
day  addressed  the  General  Court  in  this  plain  lan 
guage: 

"The  King  will  not  suffer  himself  to  be  deluded,  nor  his 
counsels  to  be  frustrated ;  and  I  hope  you  will  find  better 
counsels  about  you,  and  tell  us  plainly  and  truly  whether 
you  will  submit  to  that  commission,  without  any  shuffling. 


34$  THE  PURITAN  REPUBLIC. 

Otherwise,  I  must  say  openly  and  freely  to  you,  when  his 
majesty's  Commissioners  have  not  that  power,  that  his  com 
mission  may  not  bear  authority  here,  it  is  time  for  us  to  be 
gone  out  of  the  country;  and,  for  that  cause  of  imparting, 
we  like  not.  We  are  a  court  by  his  majesty's  authority,  or 
else  we  have  nothing  to  do  in  the  Country.  We  shall  leave 
his  majesty  to  speak  in  his  own  language  to  you  afterwards. '  ' 

To  this  the  General  Court,  on  May  20,  answered 
as  follows: 

"We  have,  only  pleaded  his  majesty's  royal  charter 
granted  to  us,  which  we  have  reason  to  hope  will  be  accept 
able  to  his  majesty,  it  being  his  special  charge  to  yourselves 
not  to  disturb  us  therein.  Your  proposal  to  that  instruction 
for  us  to  answer  to  complaints,  whereof  you  say  you  have 
had  many  against  us,  was  the  occasion  of  our  reply  to  your 
selves,  signifying  that  we  apprehended  our  charter  to  be  in 
fringed  by  your  proceedings." 

But  at  the  same  time  the  General  Court  offered  to 
give  the  commissioners  "an  account"  of  any  of  their 
proceedings  with  which  they  might  be  " unsatisfied." 
This  did  not  satisfy  the  commissioners,  who  on  the 
same  day  continued  to  "  insist  upon  the  former  ques 
tion,  and  therefore,"  they  said,  "we  are  necessitated 
to  declare  once  more  to  you,  that  your  positive  an 
swer  thereto  ought  to  be  had,  before  we  proceed  to 
act  according  to  the  virtue  of  his  majesty's  commis 
sion."  On  May  22  the  General  Court  made  an 
swer  that:  "We  humbly  conceive  it  is  beyond  our 
line  to  declare  our  sense  of  the  power,  intent  or  pur 
pose  of  your  commission;  it  is  enough  for  us  to  ac 
quaint  you,  what  we  conceive  is  granted  to  us  by  his 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  349 

majesty's  royal  charter.  If  you  rest  not  satisfied 
with  our  former  answer,  it  is  our  trouble,  but  we 
hope  it  is  not  our  fault." 

Exasperated  by  their  failure  to  elicit  from  the  Gen 
eral  Court  the  acknowledgment  sought,  the  commis 
sioners,  on  May  23,  gave  notice  that  at  9  o'clock  the 
next  morning,  at  Captain  Breedon's  house  in  Boston, 
they  would  sit  "as  his  majesty's  commissioners  to 
hear  and  determine  the  cause  of  Mr.  Thomas  Deane 
and  others  plfs.  against  the  governour  and  company, 
and  Joshua  Scottow,  merchant,  defts.  for  injustice 
done  Mr.  Deane  and  others,  when  the  Charles,  of 
Oleron,  came  into  this  port,  whereof  we  thought  fit 
to  give  you  this  notice,  that  the  governour  and  com 
pany  is  complained  of,  and  that  we  do  expect  you 
will,  by  your  attorney,  answer  to  the  complaint." 
The  General  Court  immediately  met  this  last  move 
of  the  commissioners  by  issuing  a  proclamation 
denying  their  authority  to  proceed  with  the  hearing, 
and  on  the  next  day,  before  the  appointed  time,  a 
messenger  of  the  General  Court  appeared,  and  with 
a  trumpet  announced  the  proclamation,  forbade  the 
people  attending  the  hearing,  and  then  summoned 
Deane  and  his  co-plaintiffs  to  appear  before  the  court 
for  a  rehearing  of  their  complaints,  and  sent  an  invi 
tation  to  the  commissioners  to  be  present  at  the  hear 
ing,  if  so  inclined. 

Finding  themselves  baffled  at  every  point,  the  com 
missioners  abandoned  the  contest  and  departed.1 

1  For  a  fuller  account  of  the  controversy  between  the  Commissioners 
and  the  General  Court,  see  I  Hutchinson,  215-228;  Danforth  Papers 
Mass.  His.  Coll.,  2d  Ser.,  Vol.  8,  p.  46. 


350  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

After  leaving  Boston,  the  commissioners  went  to 
Maine  to  adjust  the  claims  of  Gorges  and  Mason, 
between  whom  and  Massachusetts  there  had  been  a 
long  and  bitter  contest  over  the  question  of  jurisdic 
tion  of  that  province.  Despite  the  continued  and 
vigorous  protest  of  the  Massachusetts  authorities,  the 
commissioners  set  up  a  government  there,  but  after 
they  had  left  the  country,  Massachusetts,  in  defiance 
of  the  king's  commands  and  the  action  of  the  com 
missioners,  again  assumed  jurisdiction,  overturned 
the  courts  established  by  the  commissioners,  and  set 
up  others  created  by  the  General  Court. 

On  April  10,  1666,  an  order  was  made  by  the  king 
recalling  the  commissioners,  forbidding  any  interfer 
ence  with  Maine,  and  requiring  the  General  Court  to 
send  four  or  five  persons  to  England  with  authority 
to  answer  the  complaints  which  had  been  made 
against  Massachusetts.  No  attention  was  paid  to  the 
order  to  send  agents  to  England,  and,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  authorities  openly  defied  the  order  forbid 
ding  interference  with  Maine. 

In  September  following  petitions  were  presented 
to  the  General  Court  from  some  of  the  inhabitants 
requesting  compliance  with  the  king's  demands,  but 
"the  signers  gave  offence  to  court  and  severall  from 
each  town,  were  summoned  to  appear  to  answer  for 
the  same." 

As  if  to  make  some  atonement  for  all  this  defiance 
of  royal  authority,  the  General  Court,  on  April  21  ? 
1669,  sent  to  the  king  a  present  of  a  ship-load  of 
masts,  of  which  he  was  then  greatly  in  need,  and  the 
gift  was  graciously  acknowledged  by  him. 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  351 

There  can  be  no  question  that  at  this  time,  if  not 
before,  the  colonists  were  in  rebellion,  and  there  is 
not  the  slightest  doubt  that  they  would  have  been  in 
armed  rebellion  if  they  had  felt  themselves  "abel" 
to  maintain  it  with  any  assurance  of  success.  Al 
ready,  as  Clarendon  expressed  it,  they  had  been 
"hardened  into  a  republic." 

Some  of  the  grounds  of  their  claim  of  right  to 
establish  and  maintain  an  independent  government 
were  hinted  at  in  the  petition  ordered  to  be  drawn 
up  by  the  General  Court  prior  to  its  meeting  with 
the  royal  commissioners.  But  all  the  grounds  of 
their  claim  to  independence  were  not  stated  in  that 
petition,  for  the  obvious  reason  that  probably  this 
would  have  precipitated  at  once  a  conflict  of  arms 
for  which  the  colonists  did  not  then  deem  themselves 
prepared.  So,  in  the  petition,  they  were  simply 
feeling  their  way,  venturing  only  as  far  as  they  dared, 
not  as  far  as  they  wished,  in  the  assertion  of  what 
they  conceived  to  be  their  rights. 

Just  what  were  the  rights  guaranteed  by  the  char 
ter  it  is  difficult  to  determine.  The  charter,  as  has 
been  shown  in  a  former  chapter,1  was  in  some  re 
spects  vague  and  indefinite  in  its  terms,  especially 
in  the  parts  which  failed  clearly  to  define  the 
boundary  lines  between  the  municipal  authority  of 
the  company  and  the  sovereign  power  of  England. 
This  was  a  fault  in  the  charters  of  similar  companies. 
Nothing  could  be  found,  nothing  ever  has  been 
found,  either  in  the  law  of  nations  or  in  judicial 
precedents,  authoritatively  settling  the  construction 

1  Chapter  n. 


352  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

of  such  charters  or  the  disputed  questions  arising  out 
of  them.  Upon  some  of  them  learned  lawyers  and 
commentators  have  expressed  opinions,  but  they  do 
not  agree  in  their  opinions. 

In  determining  the  validity  of  the  claims  made  by 
the  colonists,  it  is  evident  that  the  transfer  of  the 
charter  from  England  to  America  could  not  affect  the 
construction  of  it.  Its  language  meant  the  same 
thing  in  one  place  as  in  the  other. 

And,  granting  that  the  company  had  a  right  to 
move  itself,  as  well  as  its  charter,  to  America,  it 
could  not  by  such  transfer  enlarge  its  powers.  A  cor 
poration  now  in  Massachusetts  could  not  enlarge  its 
powers  by  moving  from  one  town  to  another. 

Nevertheless,  here  in  America  was  a  colony  rapidly 
growing  in  population  and  wealth,  three  thousand 
miles  from  the  mother  country.  It  was  essential  that 
there  should  be  a  local  government  and  that  the  au 
thority  for  establishing  it  should  be  derived  from 
some  source.  In  determining  where  this  authority 
was  vested  and  what  were  its  boundaries  there  are 
several  rights  to  be  considered. 

First.  There  was  the  right  of  England  to  sover 
eign  power. 

Second.  There  was  the  right  of  local  self-govern 
ment  of  the  Massachusetts  Company,  derived  from 
the  charter. 

Third.  There  was  the  right  of  local  self-govern 
ment,  possessed  alike  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  colony, 
whether  members  of  the  Massachusetts  Company  or 
not,  and  not  derived  from  any  charter,  but  based 
.upon  the  laws  and  customs  of  England,  or  possessed 


THE   STRUGGLE   FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  353 

ss  an  inherent  right  by  the  members  of  the  com 
munity. 

However  these  various  rights  were  to  be  defined 
and  reconciled  with  each  other,  it  became  plain  at 
the  outset  that  steps  were  necessary  to  the  formation 
of  a  local  government  of  some  kind.  As  the  colony 
grew  and  its  population,  commerce  and  wealth  in 
creased,  it  became  necessary  to  pass  additional  laws 
and  regulations,  and  the  local  government  was  con 
tinually  expanding  its  powers. 

The  colonists  did  not,  as  already  stated,  base  au 
thority  to  exercise  the  powers  which  they  assumed 
upon  any  inalienable  or  inherent  rights.  More  than 
a  hundred  years  later  such  rights  were  prominently 
set  forth  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  But 
the  great  body  of  the  Puritans  had  not  progressed  so 
far  in  their  ideas  of  republican  government  during 
the  period  of  the  commonwealth.  The  Puritans  in 
England,  in  the  great  rebellion,  had  rebelled  not  so 
much  against  monarchy  as  against  the  monarch. 

The  colonists,  as  we  have  seen,  based  their  asser 
tion  of  right  to  govern  themselves  in  America  very 
largely  upon  the  charter  itself.  According  to  their 
construction  of  it  they  did  not,  of  course,  consider 
their  powers  of  government  limited  to  the  making  of 
laws  and  ordinances  relating  to  such  matters  of  local 
concern  as  in  this  day  are  usually  left  to  subordinate 
municipalities.  If  their  laws  and  ordinances  had 
been  so  limited,  no  question  would  have  been  raised 
either  as  to  the  derivation  or  the  exercise  of  their 
powers  of  local  self-government.  But  the  colonists 

PUR.  REP. — 23 


354 


THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 


did  not  stop  with  the  exercise  of  such  powers.  They 
punished  citizens  for  exercising  the  right  to  worship 
according  to  their  own  religious  views.  They  re 
quired  oaths  of  fidelity  to  the  commonwealth.  In 
1643  "there  arose  a  scruple"  about  taking  that  part 
of  the  oath  of  office  which  required  the  office-holder 
to  swear  allegiance  to  the  king,  "whereupon  it  was 
thought  fit  to  omit  that  part  of  it  for  the  present," 
and  for  many  years  this  "scruple"  continued  to  pre 
vent  such  recognition  of  royal  authority.  Lechford 
records  that  in  the  freeman's  oath,  "I  doe  not  re 
member  expressed  that  saving  which  is  and  ought  to 
be  in  all  oathes  to  other  Lords — Saving  the  faith 
and  truth  'which  I  beare  to  our  Soveraigne  Lord  the 
]£ing,  though  I  hope  it  may  be  implyed."  But 
no  such  "saving"  was  either  expressed  or  implied. 
The  colonists  failed  also  to  set  up  the  king's  arms  in 
the  courts  of  justice,  probably  by  reason  of  the  same 
"scruple"  before  mentioned.  Their  laws  nowhere 
acknowledged  that  the  authority  for  making  them 
was  derived  either  from  the  king  or  Parliament,  and 
the  enacting  clause  was  merely,  "It  is  ordered  by 
this  Court  &  the  atithority  thereof"  Their  legal 
processes  omitted  the  name  of  the  king  and  ran  in 
the  name  only  of  the  commonwealth.  They  coined 
money.  They  ignored,  and  refused  obedience  to, 
the  English  navigation  acts.  They  denied  the  right 
of  appeal  to  any  appellate  court  or  tribunal  from  the 
decree  of  their  own  courts.  And,  finally,  they  de 
nied  the  authority  of  the  English  government  to 
have  tried  and  determined  by  any  of  its  tribunals 
complaints  against  the  colonists  for  alleged  abuse  of 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  355 

the  powers  granted  to  them,  or  for  alleged  usurpations 
by  them  of  powers  not  granted.1 

If  the  colonists  had  any  such  rights  as  they  claimed, 
they  did  not  derive  them  from  the  charter.  By  their 
acceptance  of  it  they  had  acknowledged  the  sovereign 
jurisdiction  of  England  over  the  territory  covered  by 
it,  and  her  authority  to  make  the  grant  which  was 
made.  By  their  acceptance  of  the  charter  they  had 
also  recognized  the  authority  of  England  to  levy  and 
collect  taxes,  one  of  the  highest  attributes  of  sover 
eignty. 

Whatever  legislative  authority  was  granted  to  the 
company  was  given  with  the  express  reservation  that 
the  laws  and  ordinances  enacted  pursuant  to  it  "be 
not  contrary  or  repugnant  to  the  laws  and  statutes  of 
this  our  relm  of  England."  Jurisdiction  to  determine 
whether  they  were  contrary  or  repugnant  was  in  the 
sovereign  power  itself,  just  as  the  jurisdiction  to  de 
termine  whether  the  laws  of  the  states  are  contrary 
or  repugnant  to  the  constitution  or  laws  of  the  United 
States  is  vested  in  the  federal  and  not  in  the  state 
courts. 

And,  inasmuch  as  the  company  was  a  corporation 
invested  only  with  such  powers  as  were  granted  to 
it,  undoubtedly  authority  was  reserved  to  inquire, 
by  quo  ivarranto  or  other  appropriate  judicial  pro 
ceedings,  whether  the  grantees  were  abusing  the 
powers  granted  or  were  usurping  those  not  granted 
at  all. 

JIn  the  Andros  Tracts  is  a  reprint  of  a  paper  printed  in  1689  con 
taining  "an  abstract  of  some  of  the  printed  laws  of  New  England,  which 
are  either  contrary,  or  not  agreeable  to  the  laws  of  England."  Vol.  3 
P.  13- 


356  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

It  is  difficult,  therefore,  to  find  any  plausible  argu 
ment,  based  on  reasons  then  urged,  on  which  to  sustain 
the  claim  made  by  the  colonists  of  their  right  to 
establish  and  maintain  an  independent  government, 
or  to  exercise  the  powers  which  they  did  exercise. 
That  the  people  of  this  country  had  ample  grounds 
in  later  years  to  support  such  a  claim  does  not  affect 
the  question  of  the  rights  of  the  colonists  under  their 
charter. 

It  should  be  observed,  however,  in  this  connection 
that  the  colonists  never  admitted  the  right  of  English 
rulers  to  exercise  the  taxing  power  in  the  arbitrary 
manner  in  which  it  was  used  by  Charles  II  in  the 
later  years  of  his  reign,  and  no  one,  when  the  charter 
was  granted  and  accepted,  could  have  foreseen  that  it 
ever  would  be  so  exercised. 

For  several  years  afterward  there  was  another  lull 
in  the  efforts  of  the  English  rulers  to  bring  to  terms- 
their  rebellious  subjects  in  Massachusetts.  But  it 
must  not  be  supposed  that  this  lull  was  due  either  to 
the  present  of  the  ship  masts,  or  to  ignorance  of,  or 
indifference  to,  what  was  going  on  in  Massachusetts. 

War  between  England  and  the  Dutch  had  begun 
in  1664.  I*1  ^65  a  dreadful  plague  had  carried  off 
more  than  one  hundred  thousand  of  the  English 
people,  and  in  1666  a  great  fire  had  swept  London 
from  one  end  to  the  other,  leaving  fifty  thousand 
people  homeless.  The  bold  De  Ruyter  scoured  the 
ocean  and  chased  the  British  fleets  into  the  Thames 
and  the  Medway.  In  1667  he  sailed  up  the  Thames, 
destroyed  the  shipping  at  Sheerness,  burned  the  En 
glish  men-of-war  in  the  sight  of  all  England,  and 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  357 

blockaded  the  capital.  On  the  day  when  the  roar  of  his 
guns  was  heard  in  the  streets  of  London,  the  day  on 
which  England  had  sunk  to  the  lowest  depths  of 
her  degradation,  it  is  said  that  the  " Merry  Monarch" 
was  feasting  and  playing  with  the  dissolute  women  of 
his  court.  A  humiliating  peace  with  the  Dutch  was 
declared  in  the  same  year,  but  it  was  of  short  dura 
tion.  The  condition  of  England  continued  to  be 
such  as  to  allow  but  little  thought  of  the  colonies  in 
America.  A  profligate  and  wasteful  monarch  and 
an  equally  profligate  and  wasteful  ministry  had  bank 
rupted  the  treasury  and  impoverished  the  people. 
Dissensions  and  scandals  at  home  and  defeats  abroad 
had  brought  continued  disaster  and  disgrace  to  the 
English  people.  Their  thoughts  were  turning  to 
Oliver  Cromwell  and  the  proud  position  of  England 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth  when  he  ruled,  and 
they  were  beginning  to  wish  that  another  like  him 
might  appear  to  rescue  the  honor  of  the  kingdom. 
Another  war  with  the  Dutch  broke  out  and  the  at 
tention  of  rulers  and  people,  of  the  whole  world,  was 
directed  to  the  terrific  naval  battles  in  which  England 
sought  to  regain  her  prestige  on  the  ocean  and  to 
establish  again  the  glory  of  the  English  navy. 

But  even  during  this  period  the  English  rulers 
were  not  wholly  oblivious  to  affairs  in  the  Massachu 
setts  commonwealth.  At  one  of  the  meetings  of  the 
Council  of  Foreign  Plantations,  held  in  1671,  there 
was  a  discussion  as  to  the  form  of  a  circular  letter  to 
be  sent  to  the  New  England  colonies  which  appeared 
"to  be  very  independent  as  to  their  regard  to  Old 
England  or  his  Majesty,  rich  and  strong  as  they  now 


358  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

were."  Some  apprehension  was  expressed  of  the 
colonists  "breaking  away  from  all  dependence  on 
the  Nation,"  and  there  were  doubts  whether  it  were 
better  policy  to  send  "a  menacing  or  a  conciliatory 
letter."  It  was  finally  determined  to  send  a  concil 
iatory  letter  by  an  agent  to  be  selected  for  that  pur 
pose,  but,  owing  to  the  pressure  of  more  important 
public  matters  in  England,  neither  agent  nor  letter 
was  sent. 


XVI 

THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  INDEPENDENCE  AND  THE 
REVOCATION  OF  THE  CHARTER  — GENESIS 
OF  A  STILL  GREATER  REPUBLIC— CONTINUED 

PEACE  with  the  Dutch  was  declared  in  1674,  and 
the  management  of  colonial  affairs  was  again  vested 
in  the  Privy  Council,  which  exercised  its  authority  in 
such  matters  through  a  standing  committee  called 
"The  Lords  of  Trade  and  Plantations." 

Two  years  before  this,  however,  Parliament  had 
passed  another  and  still  more  odious  act,  intended 
to  supplement  the  former  navigation  acts.  This  act 
imposed  duties  upon  sugars,  tobacco,  indigo,  cotton, 
wool  and  other  commodities,  transported  from  one 
colony  to  another. 

Meantime  the  enemies  of  the  commonwealth  had 
not  been  idle.  Gorges  and  Mason  were  persistent  in 
their  complaints  of  the  infringement  of  the  common 
wealth  on  the  territory  which  they  alleged  was  cov 
ered  by  the  patent  issued  to  them.  And  the  Lon 
don  merchants  were  continually  complaining  of  the 
violation  by  the  colonists  of  the  navigation  laws. 
But  the  most  active  and  implacable  of  the  enemies 
of  the  commonwealth  was  Edward  Randolph.  Be 
sides  being  entrusted  with  various  offices  and  special 
missions,  he  was  the  person  usually  selected  to  carry 
messages  from  the  king  to  the  colonists,  to  gather 

(359) 


360  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

and  report  to  the  king  and  privy  councilors  such  in 
formation  as  they  desired,  and  he  was  depended  upon 
as  a  general  informer  to  spy  into  and  report  the  mis 
doings  of  the  people  of  Massachusetts. 

In  the  execution  of  the  various  missions  entrusted 
to  him,  he  was  as  untiring  as  he  was  relentless.  He 
made  himself  thoroughly  familiar,  even  to  the  mi 
nutest  details,  with  the  organization  of  the  govern 
ment  established  in  the  commonwealth,  and  the 
workings  of  every  department  of  it,  with  the  customs 
and  manners  and  characteristics  of  the  inhabitants, 
and  even  with  the  opinions  which  prevailed  among 
them  on  every  matter  which  was  the  subject  of  dis 
cussion.  The  Commissioners  of  Plantations  acknowl 
edged  "that  they  had  received  more  information  from 
him  about  New  England  than  of  all  other  men."  In 
carrying  on  the  business  in  which  he  was  engaged, 
he  is  said  to  have  made  no  less  than  eight  voyages 
across  the  Atlantic  within  a  period  of  nine  years.1  He 
flitted  back  and  forth  like  a  bird  of  ill  omen,  now 
coming  from  England  with  threatening  messages, 
then  returning  with  fresh  complaints  to  the  king  of 
the  performances  in  America,  telling  him  that  the 
colonists  paid  no  more  attention  to  his  letters  than 
they  did  to  the  London  Gazette,  and  urging  the  in 
stitution  of  quo  'warranto  proceedings  which,  he  said, 
would  "unhinge  their  government."  In  America,  he 
was  always  busy  tormenting  the  authorities,  foment 
ing  dissensions  and  discontent,  and  collecting  evi- 

£D  7  O 

dence  to  be  used  against  the  colonists.     In  England, 

1  Me  wrote  a  "short  narrative"  of  his  <k  proceedings  and  several  voy 
ages  to  and  from  New  England  to  Whitehall,"  which  is  reprinted  in 
the  Andros  Tracts,  Vol.  3,  p.  214. 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR   INDEPENDENCE.  361 

he  was  equally  busy  in  presenting  new  complaints 
and  furnishing  proofs  of  them,  and  pouring  into  the 
ears  of  the  king  and  privy  councilors  stories  calcu 
lated  to  inflame  them  and  spur  them  on  to  more  vig 
orous  action  against  the  king's  subjects  on  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic.  By  the  colonists  he  came  to  be  looked 
upon  as  one  "who  went  up  and  down  to  destroy 
them."  The  one  object  of  his  life  seemed  to  be  the 
destruction  of  the  Massachusetts  commonwealth. 

The  complaints  against  the  Massachusetts  authori 
ties  continued  coming  to  the  king  from  all  quarters y 
but,  so  far,  neither  his  requests  nor  his  orders  had 
been  sufficient  to  induce  the  General  Court  to  send 
agents  to  England.  The  excuse  given,  when  any 
was  given  at  all,  was  "that  the  colony  was  too  poor 
to  employ  agents,  and  had  no  meet  instruments." 

At  last  the  king,  pursuant  to  a  recommendation  of 
the  Privy  Council  at  a  meeting  held  in  December, 

1675,  sent  Randolph  as  a  special  messenger  to  Mas 
sachusetts,  with  a   letter  referring  to  the  complaints 
of  Gorges  and  Mason,  and  requiring  that  the  colony 
send  over  agents  to   answer  the  charges  made,  and 
threatening  that,  if  the  authorities  persisted  in  disre 
garding  his  demands,  the  charter  would  be  annulled. 

Randolph   arrived  in   the   beginning  of  the   year 

1676,  and,  as  the  General  Court  was  not  in  session, 
he  submitted  the  king's  letter  to  the  governor,  John 
Leverett,  and  the  magistrates.     The    letter  was   at 
tested  by  the  king's  private  secretary,  Henry  Coven 
try.     The   governor    pretended  that    he    had   never 
heard  of  him  and  asked  Randolph  who  he  might  be. 
Upon  being  informed,  the  governor   then  read   the 


362  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

letter  aloud,  but,  as  if  to  emphasize  his  contempt  for 
both  the  king  and  his  messenger,  he  sat  during  the 
reading  with  his  hat  on  and  his  example  was  imitated 
by  some  of  the  magistrates. 

Randolph  requested  that  the  General  Court  be 
convened  in  order  that  steps  might  be  taken  to  com 
ply  with  the  king's  demands,  but  various  excuses 
were  found  and  the  court  was  not  called  together  un 
til  after  his  departure. 

The  brief  answer  to  the  king's  letter  returned  by 
the  governor  and  magistrates  denied  the  complaints 
made  against  the  colony,  but  stated  that  it  would  be 
necessary,  in  order  to  make  a  suitable  reply,  to  con 
vene  the  General  Court. 

During  Randolph's  stay  he  busied  himself,  as 
usual,  in  prying  into  the  affairs  of  all  the  New  Eng 
land  colonies,  and  especially  in  stirring  up  disputes 
and  fomenting  factions  in  Massachusetts.  He  did  not 
fail  to  observe  the  open  violation  of  the  navigation 
acts  and  complained  of  this  to  the  governor.  The 
governor  treated  his  complaints  very  uncivilly.  The 
reply  which  he  gave  to  Randolph  concerning  these 
complaints  is  proof  of  the  rapid  progress  which  had 
been  made  up  to  that  time  by  the  Massachusetts  col 
onists  in  the  development  of  their  purpose  to  set  up 
and  carry  on  a  government  of  their  own.  This  reply, 
according  to  Randolph,  was  as  follows: 

"He  freely  declared  to  me  that  the  laws  made  by  your 
Majesty  and  your  Parliament  obligeth  them  in  nothing  but 
what  consists  with  the  interest  of  that  Colony ;  that  the  leg 
islative  power  is  and  abides  in  them  solely  to  act  and  make 
laws  by  virtue  of  a  charter  from  your  Majesty's  royal  father; 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  363 

and  that  all  matters  in  difference  are  to  be  concluded  by 
their  final  determination,  without  any  appeal  to  your  Majesty ; 
and  that  your  Majesty  ought  not  to  retrench  their  liberties, 
but  may  enlarge  them  if  your  Majesty  please ;  and  said  your 
Majesty  had  confirmed  their  charter  and  all  their  privileges 
by  your  Majesty's  letter  of  the  28th  of  June,  1662,  and  that 
your  Majesty  could  do  no  less  in  reason  than  let  them  enjoy 
their  liberties  and  trade,  they  having,  upon  their  own  charge, 
and  without  any  contribution  from  the  crown,  made  so  large 
plantation  in  the  wilderness." 

After  Randolph's  departure  the  General  Court  was 
convened  and,  the  elders  having  first  been  con 
sulted,  it  was  deemed  advisable  to  comply  with  the 
king's  demand  to  send  over  agents.  Stoughton  and 
Bulkeley  were  selected  for  that  purpose  and  were  dis 
patched,  in  1677,  with  instructions  to  answer  the 
complaints  of  Gorges  and  Mason,  but  they  were 
specially  enjoined  to  use  the  "utmost  care  and  cau 
tion"  in  keeping  within  the  limits  of  their  instructions 
and  "in  the  preservation  of  our  patent  liberties." 

When  the  claims  of  Gorges  and  Mason  were  sub 
mitted  to  the  English  judges  the  latter  decided  that 
neither  Mason  nor  Massachusetts  had  any  legal  right 
to  the  four  towns  of  Hampton,  Exeter,  Dover  and 
Portsmouth,  over  which  Massachusetts  had  be 
fore  exercised  jurisdiction,  and  these  were  forthwith 
constituted  a  royal  province  named  New  Hampshire 
and  placed  under  the  control  of  Edward  Cranfield. 

The  judges  decided  in  favor  of  the  claims  of 
Gorges 's  heirs  to  the  province  of  Maine,  which  the 
king  wished  to  bestow  upon  one  of  his  illegitimate 

1  Palfrey,  Vol.  3,  p.  287. 


364  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

sons.  This  wish  of  the  king,  however,  was  thwarted 
by  the  purchase  of  the  rights  of  the  Gorges  heirs  by 
the  agents  of  Massachusetts. 

As  might  have  been  foreseen,  this  action  of  the 
Massachusetts  authorities  served  still  further  to  in 
flame  the  anger  of  the  king,  who,  as  soon  as  he 
was  informed  of  it,  sent  a  message  to  the  Gen 
eral  Court  demanding  the  surrender  of  the  prov 
ince  by  Massachusetts  upon  repayment  of  the  sum 
paid  to  the  Gorges  heirs  and  at  the  same  time  de 
manding  compliance  with  the  long  neglected  com 
mands  of  himself  and  his  royal  predecessors.  The 
General  Court,  however,  refused  to  surrender  the 
province  of  Maine,  nor  did  it  make  any  haste  to 
comply  with  the  other  commands  of  the  king. 

The  Gorges  and  Mason  controversy  having  been 
disposed  of,  the  Massachusetts  agents  were  ques 
tioned  by  the  Commissioners  of  Plantations  concern 
ing  their  authority  to  answer  other  complaints.  The 
agents  amazed  the  commissioners  by  answering 
"that  they  had  no  other  power  than  to  defend  the 
claims  of  these  men  [Gorges  and  Mason] ,  but  were 
not  authorized  to  answer  any  other  question  than  as 
-private  men*"*;  whereupon  they  were  informed  "that 
his  Majesty  did  not  think  of  treating  with  his  own 
subjects  as  with  strangers,  and  to  expect  the  form 
ality  of  powers."1 

Stoughton  and  Bulkeley  remained  in  England 
nearly  three  years,  and,  while  there,  the  General 
Court  forwarded  to  the  king  several  more  addresses, 
but  it  showed  no  disposition  to  comply  with  the  most 

1  Chalmers's  Annals,  pp.  403-4. 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  365 

essential  of  the  king's  demands.  One  of  the  mat 
ters  on  which  the  king  was  most  insistent  was 
compliance  with  the  navigation  acts,  but  in  one  of 
its  addresses  the  General  Court  had  the  boldness 
to  assert  that  these  were  "an  invasion  of  the  rights, 
liberties  and  properties  of  the  subjects  of  his  majesty 
in  the  colony,  they  not  being  represented  in  Parlia 
ment" — thus,  for  the  first  time,  distinctly  putting 
forth  one  of  the  cardinal  points  urged  nearly  one 
hundred  years  later  in  the  Declaration  of  Independ 
ence. 

The  objection  now  brought  forward  to  the  exercise 
by  the  English  government  of  the  power  to  tax  the 
colonists  deserves  special  attention  as  clearly  mark 
ing  the  beginning  of  the  claim  persistently  urged 
from  that  time  to  the  Revolution,  and  emphasized  in 
the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

It  was  the  arbitrary  and  despotic  exercise  of  the 
taxing  power  by  the  English  rulers  which,  more  than 
all  other  causes  combined,  led  to  the  revolution.  It 
is  true  that  by  the  acceptance  of  the  charter  the  col 
onists  had  recognized,  in  a  general  way,  the  right  of 
the  English  government  to  tax  them.  But  it  was  a 
cardinal  principle  of  the  unwritten  English  constitu 
tion  that  there  should  be  no  taxation  without  repre 
sentation,  and,  though  the  charter  did  not  expressly 
give  the  colonists  the  right  of  representation,  they 
might  well  argue  that  this  was  implied  as  one  of  the 
conditions  precedent  to  the  imposition  of  taxes  upon 
them.  However  this  may  be,  they  were  clearly 
right  in  contending  that  it  could  not  have  been  in 
tended,  either  by  those  who  granted,  or  by  those  who 


366  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

accepted  the  charter,  that  the  taxing  power  should 
be  perverted  from  its  legitimate  governmental  function 
and  used  to  cripple  the  commerce  and  to  destroy  the 
manufactures  of  the  colonists.  Such  a  perversion  of 
it  as  was  exhibited  in  the  reigns  of  Charles  II  and 
George  III  justifies  revolution  as  a  last  resort,  and 
would  be  as  certain  to  lead  to  rebellion  in  any  land 
inhabited  by  people  who  have  inherited  English  ideas 
of  constitutional  liberty  as  it  did  in  America  in 
1776. 

It  being  evident  that  nothing  could  be  accom 
plished  through  the  agents  then  in  England,  they 
were  permitted  to  return,  bringing  with  them  a  letter 
from  the  king,  dated  July  24,  1679,  in  which  he  de 
manded  that  other  agents  be  sent  over  within  six 
months,  fully  instructed  and  authorized  to  make  the 
answers  and  transact  the  business  desired  by  the  king. 

A  synopsis  of  the  king's  letter,  as  given  in  Chalm 
ers's  Annals,1  shows  that  "  among  other  requisitions, 
he  commanded:  That  liberty  of  conscience  should  be 
allowed  to  those  of  the  church  of  England,  or  other 
subjects,  not  being  papists ;  that  all  of  competent 
estates  should  be  admitted  freemen  and  magistrates; 
.that  the  number  of  assistants,  which  the  charter  re 
quired,  should  be  chosen  in  future;  that  those,  who 
were  invested  with  any  privilege  or  office,  should  take 
the  oath  of  allegiance;  that  military  commissions  and 
process  of  courts  should  run  in  his  name;  that  all 
ordinances,  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  trade,  should  be 
abolished;  that  every  assistance  should  be  given  to 
the  collector  of  his  customs,  in  discharge  of  his  duty.'* 
IP.  409. 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  367 

Randolph  followed  immediately  after  the  returning 
agents,  bringing  with  him  a  commission  appointing 
him  customs-collector  at  Boston. 

No  attention  was  paid  to  the  king's  demand  to 
send  over  other  agents,  further  than  to  make  the 
poor  excuse,  which  was  probably  regarded  by  the 
king  as  worse  than  none,  "that  the  country  was  poor; 
proper  persons  were  afraid  of  the  seas,  as  the  Turkish 
pirates  had  lately  taken  their  vessels,  and  that  his 
majesty  was  still  employed  in  the  most  important 
affairs."  The  General  Court  complied  with  some 
of  the  least  important  of  the  king's  demands  by  fill 
ing  up  the  number  of  assistants,  requiring  oaths  of 
allegiance,  and  issuing  commissions  and  process  in 
the  king's  name;  but  no  substantial  change  was 
made  in  the  laws  or  in  the  established  policy  of  the 
commonwealth . 

When  Randolph  began  to  exercise  his  office,  he 
was  at  once  met  with  persistent  and  violent  opposi 
tion  and  was  hindered  by  the  authorities  in  every 
way  possible.  He  was  prosecuted  and  fined,  and 
denied  an  attorney.  His  servants  were  mobbed  and 
the  vessels  seized  by  him  were  forcibly  taken  from 
him.  Toward  the  end  of  1680  he  returned  to  Eng 
land  to  make  fresh  complaints  and  to  get  enlarged 
authority. 

When  reports  of  the  manner  in  which  his  com 
mands  had  been  treated  were  laid  before  the  king, 
they  served,  as  might  have  been  expected,  to  in 
crease  his  resentment  and  to  strengthen  his  deter 
mination  to  bring  the  Massachusetts  government 
under  subjection  to  royal  authority.  He  wrote 


368  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

another  letter  to  the  General  Court,  repeating  his 
former  remonstrances  and  admonitions  and  directing 

o 

that  other  agents  be  sent  within  three  months  with 
authority  to  settle  the  matters  in  controversy. 

In  the  early  part  of  1681,  Randolph  came  again, 
this  time  armed  with  a  commission  as  "  Collector, 
Surveyor  and  Searcher  for  all  New  England,"  but 
no  more  respect  was  paid  to  his  authority  than  be 
fore,  and  when  he  requested  to  know  of  the  General 
Court  " whether  it  will  admit  the  patent  above  men 
tioned  [his  commission]  to  be  in  force  or  not,  that 
he  may  know  how  to  govern  himself,"  the  Court  re 
mained  silent. 

The  king  sent  another  severe  letter  to  the  General 
Court  (dated  October  21,  1681),  characterized  by 
Chalmers  as  "  perhaps  the  most  extraordinary  one 
ever  sent  by  a  sovereign  to  his  subjects*  containing  a 
sketch  of  the  history  of  the  disobedience  of  Massa 
chusetts,  as  drawn  by  the  then  ministers  of  England." 
We  "once  more,"  the  letter  concludes,  "charge  and 
require  you  forthwith  to  send  over  your  agents  fully 
empowered  and  instructed  to  attend  the  regulation 
of  that  our  government,  and  to  answer  the  irregularity 
of  your  proceedings  therein,"  and  threatening  that  on 
failure  to  do  so,  quo  -warranto  proceedings  would  be 
instituted  "whereby  our  charter  granted  unto  you, 
with  all  the  powers  thereof,  may  be  legally  evicted 
and  made  void.  And  so  we  bid  you  farewel."1 

It  was  now  plain  that  the  king  could  no  longer  be 
put  off  by  addresses,  and  that  failure  to  comply  with 
the  royal  demand  for  sending  new  agents  would  not 

1  Chalmers's  Annals,  pp.  443-449. 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  369 

be  excused  by  the  king,  either  on  account  of  the  ex 
pense  or  of  the  apprehension  of  their  capture  on  the 
way  by  Turkish  pirates.  Indeed,  in  regard  to  the 
latter  contingency,  there  is  little  room  for  doubt  that 
the  king  would  not  have  mourned  over  it  as  a  na 
tional  calamity  if  the  pirates  had  captured  the  agents 
and  all  the  members  of  the  General  Court.  There 
was  nothing  left  to  do,  therefore,  but  to  comply  with 
the  royal  demands,  and  Joseph  Dudley  and  John 
Richards  were  selected  as  agents  and  sent  to  England. 
They  sailed  on  May  31,  1681.  Randolph  was  at 
their  heels  to  dispute  anything  they  might  say,  and 
to  thwart  any  efforts  that  might  be  made  by  them  to 
allay  the  displeasure  of  the  king. 

The  colonial  agents,  in  August  following  their  ar 
rival  in  England,  submitted  to  the  king's  councilors 
a  voluminous  document  containing  answers  to  the 
various  demands  and  complaints  contained  in  the 
king's  former  letters,  and  especially  to  those  con 
tained  in  his  letter  of  October  21,  1681,  referred  to 
in  the  preceding  pages.1  Some  of  the  most  serious 
demands  and  charges,  together  with  the  answers 
thereto,  are  here  given.  They  will  serve  to  show 
the  general  character  of  the  complaints  made  by  the 
king  against  the  Massachusetts  colonists  and  of  the 
reasons  then  urged  by  the  latter  in  justification  of 
their  former  course. 

1  The  document  is  given  in  full  in  Chalmers's  Annals,  pp.  450-461. 
It  sets  out  first  in  a  column  entitled  "Charges,"  a  brief  synopsis  of  the 
various  requirements  and  complaints  made  in  former  letters  of  the  king; 
next  in  a  column  entitled  "Answers,"  the  matters  alleged  by  the  colo 
nists  in  excuse  or  justification,  and  next  in  a  column  entitled  "Proofs," 
the  evidence  adduced  in  support  of  the  answers. 
PUR.  REP. — 24 


37° 


THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 


Charges. 

His  majesty's  letter, 
of  the  24  July,  1679,  to 
the  governor  and  com 
pany  of  the  Massachu- 
fets  colony,  requires: 
istly.  That  agents  be 
sent  over  in  six  months, 
fully  instructed  to  an 
swer  and  transact 
what  undetermined  at 
the  time. 


2dly.  That  free 
dom  and  liberty  of 
conscience  be  given  to 
such  persons  as  desire 
to  serve  God  in  the 
way  of  the  church  of 
England,  so  as  not  to 
be  made  thereby  ob 
noxious,  or  discoun 
tenanced  from  sharing 
in  the  government. 
Much  less  that  they, 
or  any  other  of  his 
majesty's  subjects, 
(not  being  Papists,) 
who  do  not  agree  in  the 
congregational  way,  be 
by  law  subjected  to 
fine  or  forfeitures,  or  to 
other  incapacities,  for 
the  same. 


3dly.    That  no  oth 
er    distinction  be   ob- 


Ansivers. 

To  which  the  agents  of  the 
said  colony  humbly  answer: 

That  the  delay  of  sending 
such  agents  hath  been  occa 
sioned  by  the  danger  of  the 
seas;  Connecticut  agent  and 
several  others  having  been 
taken  by  the  Turks,  and  ran 
somed  at  extreme  rates.  That 
the  arrear  of  debt,  by  reason 
of  the  late  war  with  the  In 
dians,  had  so  far  impover 
ished  them,  as  to  make  them 
almost  incapable  of  the  ex- 
pence  of  such  attendance. 

There  is  no  law  nor  usage 
there  to  bar  the  use  of  the 
English  liturgy,  nor  have  any 
persons  been  obstructed  who 
desired  the  same;  nor  is  there 
any  law  to  hinder  any  per 
sons  of  the  church  of  Eng 
land  from  being  chosen  into 
the  government,  but  the  vote 
and  suffrage  of  the  people 
are  free  and  without  any  re 
straint  for  such,  as  well  as 
any  others. 

Whatever  has  been  form 
erly,  there  is  now  no  law 
put  in  execution  against  dis 
senters  but  what  is  consonant 
to  the  law  of  England,  and 
of  like  force  against  those  of 
the  congregational  way  as 
any  others. 

There  is  no  other  distinc 
tion  made  in  the  making  of 


served   in    making    of    freemen,   than   that  they  be 
freemen,    than   that     freeholders    of    los.  rateable 

estate,  and  of  the  protestant 

religion. 


Proofs. 


This  the  agents 
know. 


And  the  debt 
of  the  colony 
was,  at  the  re 
ceipt  of  those 
letters,  about 
20,000  1. 

New  E  n  gl  . 
Laws,  p.  56.  The 
law,  prohibiting 
all  persons,  ex 
cept  members  of 
churches,  from 
being  freemen,  is 
repealed.  And 
the  agents  know 
the  practice  to 
be  as  in  their  an- 


The  agents 
know  this  to  be 
true.  Vid.  Laws? 
fo.  45-67:  Meet 
ing-houses:  And 
absence  from 
meeting. 


The  Laws,  p. 
56,  make  out 
this. 


they  be  men  of  com 
petent  estates,  rateable 


THE   STRUGGLE   FOR   INDEPENDENCE. 


371 


Charges. 

at  los.  according  to 
the  rules  of  the  place; 
and  that  such,  in  their 
turn,  be  capable  of 
magistracy,  and  all 
laws  to  be  made  void 
that  obstruct  the 
same. 

*  *  * 
His  majesty,  by  let 
ter  of  the  13  Septem 
ber,  1680,  complains: 
istly.  That  few  of 
his  directions  in  his 
former  letter  had  been 
pursued  by  the  general 
court  in  New  England, 
and  that  the  considera 
tion  of  the  remaining 
part  of  them  were  put 
off  on  insufficient  pre 
tences. 

#•         #         # 
His  majesty,  by  let 
ter  of  2ist  of  October, 
1681,  complains: 

istly.  That  Mr.  Ran 
dolph,  being  appointed 
searcher,  collector,  and 
surveyor,  of  his  ma 
jesty's  customs,  in 
Massachusetts  colony, 
to  prevent  the  breaches 
of  the  acts  of  naviga 
tion. 

That  all  his  care  had 
no  effect ;  in  regard, 
attachments  were 
granted  against  him 
and  his  officers  for 
doing  their  duties. 


Answers. 

And  all  freemen  are  capa 
ble  of  being  chosen  to  any 
trust  in  the  magistracy  there; 
and  all  laws,  obstructing  the 
same,  repealed  on  his  maj 
esty's  particular  commands 
for  the  same. 


That  their  delay,  or  slow 
ness  of  procedure,  proceeded 
not  from  any  want  of  allegi 
ance  or  doubt  of  giving  his 
majesty  all  satisfaction  there 
in,  nor  was  it  any  disadvan 
tage  to  any  his  majesty's  sub 
jects  there  for  whose  avail  the 
said  complaints  were  made; 
but  that  they  might  proceed 
with  satisfaction  amongst 
themselves. 


Proofs. 
And    men    of 
the  church  of 

England  are  ad 
mitted  freemen ; 
as  also  all  Pro 
testants   of   IDS 
rateable  estate. 


That    Mr.    Randolph,   on       This  the  agents 
sight  of  his  majesty's  letters     know  to  be  true, 
patents,    was    received     and 
acknowledged    as    collector, 
searcher,  and  surveyor,  of  his 
majesty's    customs,  and    his 
letters     patents    accordingly 
enrolled. 


That  no  other  complaint, 
or  suit,  against  his  majesty's 
officers  hath  been  at  any  time 
countenanced,  or  damage 
given  thereupon,  but  such  as 
in  their  best  judgment  has 
been  pursuant  to  the  pro 
viding  damages  for  the  officers 
just  vexing  the  subjects. 


Vid.  the  act. 


372  THE  PURITAN  REPUBLIC. 

Charges.  Answers.  Proofs. 

And,    when  any  of-         That,   for    ordinary    trials 

fenders  were  prosecu-     in  his  majesty's  stated  courts, 

ted    in    his    majesty's     nothing  hath  been  demanded 

name,  the  officers  were     or   taken   of  Mr.    Randolph 

obliged    (against    law)     but   in    extraordinary    cases; 

to   deposit  money  be-     where  juries  were  summoned 

fore  trial  could  be  ob-     at  his  instance,  and  travelled 

tained,  and  afterwards     far  on  purpose,  so  much  has 

forced  to  pay  costs  and     been  taken  as  to  defray  their 

suffer  other  hardships,     necessary  attendance;  which 

will  be  prevented  in   future, 

and  all  cases  reserved  to  the 

ordinary  terms  if  the  officer 

be  directed  thereto. 

That  appeals  to  his  That  if,  without  either 
majesty  in  matters  of  restriction  of  the  sum  or  diffi- 
revenue  were  refused  to  culty  of  the  case,  all  matters 
be  admitted.  indifferently  may,  by  the  offi 

cer    or    his    deputy,    be    re 
moved    from     his    majesty's 
courts  there,  and  the  subject 
forced    to    transport  himself 
into  this   kingdom    of    Eng 
land,  it   will    force   them   to 
quit   their   woods   upon    any 
pretence  rather    than    suffer         (No   proof    is 
such     inconvenience,    and     cited  in  support 
thereby  wholly  discourage  all     of  the    last   an- 
trade   in   that    his   majesty's     swer.) 
plantation,    of    which    we 
humbly    pray    his    majesty's 
gracious  consideration. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  answers  were  in 
geniously  drawn  and  that  probably  they  were  the 
best  that  could  be  devised,  but  considering  the  facts, 
with  which  the  king  by  this  time  was  thoroughly  con 
versant,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  answers  were  far 
from  being  satisfactory  to  him.  It  is  questionable 
whether  the  old  adage  "a  poor  excuse  is  better  than 
none,"  holds  true  when  applied  to  the  excuses  given 
by  the  agents  to  the  king.  The  probability  is  that 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  373 

they  were  viewed  by  him  as  mere  subterfuges  and 
that  they  served  still  further  to  inflame  his  resent 
ment. 

At  their  first  hearing  before  the  Privy  Council,  the 
agents  were  required  to  produce  their  instructions 
from  the  General  Court,  when  it  was  found  that 
they  contained  no  such  powers  as  the  king  had  re 
quired  them  to  be  invested  with,  whereupon  they 
were  informed  that  unless  they  "speedily  obtained 
such  powers  as  might  make  them  capable  to  satisfy 
on  all  points,  a  quowarranto  should  proceed."  The 
position  of  the  agents  was  most  embarrassing.  They 
were  pressed  by  the  king's  councilors  to  make  con 
cessions  which  they  could  not  make  without  violating 
instructions  which  they  dared  not  violate.  But  they 
could  see  plainly  that,  without  such  concessions,  it 
would  be  impossible  to  avert  the  impending  destruc 
tion  of  the  commonwealth.  They  wrote  home,  ex 
plaining  to  those  in  authority  the  state  of  affairs  in 
England,  and  plainly  indicated  that  there  was  no 
hope  for  the  commonwealth  except  by  submission  to 
the  king's  demands. 

Their  letters  carried  dismay  to  those  who  still  hoped 
for  the  preservation  of  the  charter.  The  General 
Court  again  ordered  days  of  fasting  and  prayer. 
More  addresses  were  sent  to  the  king.  Addresses 
were  also  distributed  among  the  people  of  the  com 
monwealth,  and  the  advice  of  the  elders  was  sought. 
"In  general  it  was  thought  better  to  die  by  the  hands 
of  others  than  by  their  own,"  and  instructions  were 
sent  to  the  agents  in  England  to  give  up  the  province 

1  Hutchinson,  Vol.  i,  p.  302. 


374  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

of  Maine,  if  that  would  save  the  charter,  but  "to 
make  no  concessions  of  any  privileges  conferred  upon 
the  colony  by  the  charter." 

Randolph,  fearing  for  his  life,  "as  a  subverter  of 
the  constitution,  by  virtue  of  an  ancient  law,"  had 
petitioned  in  September,  1682,  to  return  to  England, 
and  the  permission  asked  was  given.1 

About  this  time  an  exposure  was  made  of  an  al 
leged  attempt  of  the  Massachusetts  authorities  to 
bribe  the  king  by  a  present  of  £2,000.  The  ex 
posure  excited  derision  and  tended  to  bring  the  col 
onists  into  still  greater  disrepute.2 

The  king  and  his  councilors  were  now  fully  bent 
upon  bringing  to  terms  his  rebellious  subjects  in 
Massachusetts,  and,  as  a  first  step,  Randolph,  whom 
Chalmers  styles  "the  general  accuser  during  those 
days  against  the  governor  and  company  of  Massa 
chusetts,"  in  June,  1683,  filed  with  the  Lords  of  the 
Council  articles  of  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors 
against  the  Governor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts, 
which  we  may  be  sure  embody  all  the  causes  of  com 
plaint  having  any  foundation  upon  which  to  base 
them.  It  was  charged: 

"istly.  They  assume  powers  that  are  not  warranted  by 
the  charter,  which  is  executed  in  another  place  than  was 

1  Chalmers's  Annals,  p.  411. 

2  Subsequent    investigation   of   this   improbable  story   of    attempted 
bribery  has  shown  that  it  grew  out  of  a  premeditated  scheme,  concocted 
by  the  perfidious  Cranfield,  the   royal  governor  of  New   Hampshire,  to 
trap  the  magistrates  of  Massachusetts   and   to  render  their  cause  still 
more  odious  to   the  king.     But  it  served    its   purpose  at  the  time.     It 
greatlv  embarrassed  the  agents   in  England  and   mortified  the  friends  of 
the  commonwealth  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.     See  Palfrey,  Vol.  3, 
p.  410,  note  i;  Hutchinson,  Vol.  i,  p.  303. 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  375 

intended.  2ndly.  They  make  laws  repugnant  to  those  of 
England.  3rdly.  They  levy  money  on  subjects  not  in 
habiting  the  colony:  (and  consequently  not  represented  in 
the  general  court).  4thly.  They  impose  an  oath  of 
fidelity  to  themselves,  without  regarding  the  oath  of  allegi 
ance  to  the  king.  5thly.  They  refuse  justice,  by  withholding 
appeals  to  the  king  in  council.  6thly.  They  oppose  the  acts 
of  navigation,  and  imprison  the  king's  officers  for  doing 
their  duty.  /thly.  They  have  established  a  naval  office 
with  a  view  to  defraud  the  customs.  Sthly.  No  verdicts  are 
ever  found  for  the  king  in  relation  to  customs,  and  the  courts 
impose  costs  on  the  prosecutors,  in  order  to  discourage  trials. 
9thly.  They  levy  customs  on  the  importation  of  goods  from 
England.  lothly.  They  do  not  administer  the  oath  of 
supremacy,  as  required  by  charter.  nthly.  They  have 
erected  a  court  of  admiralty,  though  not  empowered  by 
charter.  I2thly.  They  discountenance  the  church  of  Eng 
land.  I3thly.  They  persist  in  coining  money,  though  they 
had  asked  forgiveness  for  that  offence."1 

The  quo  ivarranto  proceedings,  so  long  threatened 
and  so  long  delayed,  were  now  begun  in  earnest,  but 
this  time  in  the  Court  of  Chancery.  The  reason  given 
for  this  was  that  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Court  of  Chan 
cery  extended  to  the  colonies,  and  it  was  desired  to 
avoid  the  objection,  before  made  to  the  judgment  of  the 
Court  of  King's  Bench,  that  it  did  not  bind  the  mem 
bers  of  the  company  residing  in  America  and  that 
hence  their  charter  was  not  forfeited. 

Randolph  scurried  across  the  Atlantic  to  serve  the 
writ,  but  at  the  same  time  he  brought  a  declaration 
from  the  king  "that  if  the  colony,  before  prosecution, 
would  make  full  submission  and  entire  resignation  to 

1  Chalmers's  Annals,  462. 


376  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

his  pleasure,  he  would  regulate  their  charter  for  his 
service  and  their  good,  and  with  no  further  alterations 
than  should  be  necessary  for  the  support  of  his  gov 
ernment  there." 

In  the  "Hutchinson  Collection  of  Papers"1  is 
found  a  paper  entitled  " Arguments  against  relin 
quishing  the  Charter,"  which  the  editor  of  the  col 
lection  supposes  to  have  been  written  in  November, 
1683,  and  which  is  noted  as  "characteristick  of  the 
early  habits  of  resistance  to  tyranny  in  New  Eng 
land."  It  was  doubtless  prepared  by  some  of  the 
ministers  whose  advice  was  sought,  and  gives,  in  the 
form  of  "objections  and  answers,"  some  of  the  ar 
guments  which  probably  were  then  influential  in  in 
ducing  the  colonists  to  refuse  "full  submission  and 
entire  resignation  to  his  pleasure"  required  by  King 
Charles.  Among  the  objections  and  answers  are  the 
following: 

"Obj.  4.  But  what  Scripture  is  there  against  this  full 
submission  and  entire  resignment? 

"Ans.  There  is  the  sixth  commandment.  Men  may  not 
destroy  their  political  any  more  than  their  natural  lives.  All 
judicious  casuists  say,  It  is  unlawful  for  a  man  to  kill  him 
self  when  he  is  in  danger,  for  fear  he  shall  fall  into  the  hands 
of  his  enemies,  who  will  put  him  to  a  worse  death.  I  Sam. 
31.  4.  There  is  also  that  Scripture  against  it,  Judges  n. 
24,  27;  and  that  I  Kings,  21.3.  The  civil  liberties  of  the 
people  in  New  England  are  part  of  the  inheritance  of  their 
fathers ;  and  shall  they  give  that  inheritance  away  ? 

"Obj.  5.  They  will  be  exposed  to  great  sufferings  if  they 
do  it  not. 

1Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  3d  Ser.,  Vol.  i,  pp.  74-81. 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  377 


<  < 


[Ans.  Better  suffer  than  sin,  Heb.  n.  26,  27.  Let 
them  put  their  trust  in  the  God  of  their  fathers,  which  is 
better  than  to  put  confidence  in  princes.  And  if  they  suffer 
because  they  dare  not  comply  with  the  wills  of  men  against 
the  will  of  God,  they  suffer  in  a  good  cause,  and  will  be 
accounted  martyrs  in  the  next  generation,  and  at  the  great 
day." 

The  desperate  nature  of  the  situation  was  now 
evident  to  every  one,  and  none  could  fail  to  see  the 
handwriting  on  the  wall,  portending  the  revocation 
of  the  charter  and  the  destruction  of  the  common 
wealth. 

In  England,  the  "Merry  Monarch"  now  felt  secure 
of  his  crown.  A  large  part  of  the  people  there,  who 
had  long  chafed  under  the  galling  restraints  of  Puritan 
rule,  but  had  been  awed  by  it  into  at  least  outward 
decorum,  now  gave  themselves  up  to  the  enjoyment 
of  all  the  vile  pleasures  which  a  dissolute  monarch 
and  his  dissolute  favorites  sanctioned  by  their  own 
example.  Not  only  were  the  Puritans  no  longer 
influential  in  the  government,  but  to  the  rulers  in 
England  and  to  a  large  part  of  the  English  people 
they  had  become  objects  of  contempt  and  derision. 

Only  a  few  months  before,  quo  ivarranto  proceed 
ings  had  been  begun  against  the  city  of  London  and 
its  ancient  charter  had  been  declared  forfeited  on  the 
most  flimsy  pretexts,  one  of  which  was  that  the  city 
had  imposed  a  small  toll  upon  goods  brought  to 
market  there,  in  order  to  defray  the  expense  of  re 
building  the  market  buildings  which  had  been  de 
stroyed  by  the  great  fire  in  1666.  The  cause  of  the 
city  was  pleaded  by  the  ablest  lawyers  of  the  time, 


378  THE  PURITAN  REPUBLIC. 

but  without  avail.  "The  office  of  judge  was  at  that 
time,"  says  Hume,  "held  during  pleasure,  and  it 
was  impossible  that  any  cause,  where  the  court  bent 
its  force,  could  ever  be  carried  against  it."1  Similar 
proceedings  were  begun  against  all  the  municipal 
corporations  in  the  kingdom  which  had  excited  the 
displeasure  or  tempted  the  cupidity  of  the  king  and 
his  favorites. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  commonwealth  had  been 
impoverished  by  the  heavy  expenses  of  King  Philip's 
war,  and  by  two  great  fires  in  Boston,  one  in  1676 
and  one  in  1679.  It  had  many  enemies  within  its 
own  borders  and  Randolph,  by  his  machinations, 
was  continually  stirring  up  fresh  discord  and  discon 
tent.  There  were  also,  by  this  time,  many  in  the 
colony  to  whom  the  rigid  restraints  of  the  common 
wealth  had  become  distasteful  and  who  longed  to  see 
them  broken  down.  And  there  were  time-servers 
and  place-hunters  who  hoped  to  profit  by  a  change 
of  government. 

In  such  a  situation  of  affairs  further  resistance  by 
the  poor  and  feeble  Massachusetts  commonwealth 
would  have  been  a  hopeless  undertaking.  The  gov 
ernor  and  a  majority  of  the  assistants  voted  to  sub 
mit  to  the  pleasure  of  the  king,  but  the  deputies  held 
out  to  the  last  and  entered  of  record  this  short  but 
emphatic  dissent:  "The  deputies  consent  not;  but 
adhere  to  their  former  bills." 

However,  more  addresses  were  sent,  and  Robert 
Humphreys,  a  London  lawyer,  was  employed  by  the 

1  History  of  England,  Vol.  6,  Chap.  69. 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  379 

General  Court  to  defend  and  was  instructed  "to  spin 
out  the  case  to  the  uttermost." 

The  addresses  and  petitions  of  the  General  Court 
fell  on  deaf  ears  and  excited  only  ridicule  in  Eng 
land.  No  time  was  lost  in  pushing  the  quo  -warranto, 
and,  for  once,  no  complaint  could  be  urged  against 
the  slow  action  of  the  Court  of  Chancery.  Hum 
phreys,  obeying  his  instructions  from  the  General 
Court,  endeavored  to  delay  the  proceedings  and  to 
obtain  more  time  for  filing  an  answer,  but  the  court 
refused  to  grant  it.  The  case  was  pushed  to  a 
speedy  hearing.  Of  course  Randolph  was  on  hand 
with  the  requisite  amount  of  proof,  and  on  October 
23,  1684,  final  judgment  of  forfeiture  was  entered.1 

The  precise  grounds  of  forfeiture  specified  in  the 
judgment  were  these: 

First.  That  the  governor  and  company  had  as 
sumed  "the  unlawful  and  unjust  power  to  leavy  money 
of  our  Subjects  and  leige  people  to  the  use  of  them 
the  said  Governor  and  Company  of  Mattachusetts  Bay 
aforesaid  under  colour  of  Lawes  or  Ordinances  by  them 
de  facto  ordained  and  established  without  any  other 
right  title  or  Authority  whatsoever," — in  the  levy 
and  collection  of  taxes  and  duties. 

Second.  That  they  had  also,  pursuant  to  the  laws 
and  ordinances  established  by  them,  "and  without 
any  other  right  and  against  Our  Will,"  erected  a  mint- 
house  and  coined  money. 

Third.  That  they  had  also  made  and  published 
another  law  or  ordinance  "to  the  effect  following, 
that  is  to  say:  That  noe  man  should  be  urged  to  take 

1  Mass.  His.  Coll.,  4th  Ser.,  Vol.  2,  pp.  246-278. 


380  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

an  oath  or  subscribe  to  any  Articles  Covenants  or 
Remonstrances  of  publique  andCivill  nature  but  such 
as  the  Generall  Court  (meaning  the  publique  Assem 
bly  aforesaid)  had  considered  allowed  and  required. 
And  that  noe  oath  of  any  Magistrate  or  other  Officer 
should  bind  him  any  further  or  longer  then  hee  was 
resident  or  reputed  an  Inhabitant  of  that  Jurisdiction 
(meaning  the  bounds  and  premisses  in  the  said 
Letters  Patents  above  specified  and  granted)." 

Fourth.  That  they  had  also  required  an  oath  of 
fidelity  to  their  government  (the  oath  required  being 
copied  in  full  in  the  judgment)  to  be  taken  by  "all 
setled  Inhabitants  amongst  them  who  had  not  already 
taken  the  same,"  also  by  "all  strangers  who  after 
two  moneths  had  their  abode  there." 

The  judgment  then  recites  that  by  reason  of  such 
usurpations, 

"Our  service  of  and  for  the  keeping  of  our  peace  and 
good  Rule  and  Government  of  Our  people  there  was  and  is 
much  impeded  to  the  great  damage  of  Our  People  residing 
there  and  to  our  noe  small  prejudice  and  grievance.  By 
reason  whereof  the  said  Governor  and  Company  of  Matta- 
chusetts  Bay  aforesaid  have  forfeited  the  said  Letters 
Patents,"  and  "Therefore  by  the  said  Court  here  itt  is  ad 
judged  That  the  aforesaid  Letters  Patents  soe  as  aforesaid  to 
them  the  said  Governor  and  Company  made  and  granted 
and  the  Inrollment  thereof  be  vacated,  Cancelled  and  annihi 
lated  and  into  the  said  Court  restored  there  to  be  cancelled." 

There  was  some  delay,  probably  owing  to  the 
death  of  King  Charles,  and  the  exemplification  of 
the  judgment  was  not  issued  until  after  the  crowning 
of  his  successor,  James  II.  Of  the  latter  no  favors 


THE    STRUGGLE    FOR    INDEPENDENCE.  381 

could  be  expected  by  the  colonists.  "He  had  no 
sooner  ascended  the  throne,"  says  Chalmers,1  "than 
he  transmitted  proclamations  of  that  event,  to  be  pub 
lished  in  New  England.  The  letter  which  conveyed 
official  notice  of  that  deplored  event  to  the  governor 
and  magistrates,  informed  them,  in  the  language  of 
insult,  which  ought  never  to  be  spoken  to  the  af 
flicted,  'that  they  were  not  written  to  as  a  govern 
ment,  their  patent  being  cancelled';  which,  by  put 
ting  them  in  remembrance  of  what  they  had  lost, 
served  only  to  throw  a  gloom  over  a  transaction 
where  gladness  should  alone  have  presided."  One 
of  the  first  acts  of  the  new  king  was  to  issue  the  ex 
emplification  of  the  judgment  vacating  the  charter, 
which  bears  date  October  13,  1685. 

Regarding  the  legality  of  the  judgment  rendered 
it  is  not  now  necessary  to  inquire.  When  the  king 
wanted  a  thing  done  in  those  times  it  was  easy 
enough  to  find  a  way  to  do  it.  He  had  determined 
to  have  the  charter  annulled  and  it  was  done.  The 
precious  document,  to  which  the  colonists  had  clung 
so  long  and  so  tenaciously,  was  now  of  no  more 
value  than  so  much  waste  paper,  and  a  death-blow 
had  been  struck  to  the  commonwealth. 

All  were  about  to  be  placed  upon  an  equality — not 
as  freemen,  but,  as  nearly  as  Andros  could  make 
them,  his  vassals — and  they  and  their  descendants 
were  to  wait  for  nearly  a  hundred  years  for  the  full 
development  of  the  republic.  But  the  seed  had  been 
planted  and  it  did  not  die  with  the  commonwealth. 

Soon  the  people  of  Massachusetts  were  to  see  new 

1  Annals,  p.  417. 


382  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

and  strange  sights — a  royal  governor,  gay  equipages, 
brilliant  uniforms,  and,  more  galling  than  all  these, 
an  Episcopalian  minister  in  his  surplice,  reading  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  in  the  South  Church  in 
Boston,  while  the  members  of  the  Puritan  congrega 
tion  stood  in  the  streets,  waiting  until  he  had  con 
cluded  before  they  could  enter  and  hold  services  in 
their  own  church. 


XVII 

\ 

THE  ANDROS  SEQUEL 

THE  charter  had  been  overthrown,  but  the  common 
wealth  itself  was  not  yet  quite  dead.  It  was  some 
time  before  the  fate  of  the  charter  was  known  in 
America,  and  some  time  after  that  before  the  official 
announcement  of  it  was  received.  Meantime  the 
officers  of  the  commonwealth  exercised  their  offices 
as  usual,  the  General  Court  continued  its  meetings, 

7  O      / 

and  elections  were  held  as  before.  On  May  14,  1686, 
the  triumphant  Randolph  appeared  in  Boston  with  a 
copy  of  the  judgment  against  the  charter  and  a  com 
mission  for  the  officers  of  a  provisional  government, 
of  which  Joseph  Dudley  was  to  be  the  president.  The 
General  Court  was  in  session,  and  on  the  iyth  a  copy 
of  the  commission  was  presented  and  read.  The  last 
session  was  held  on  the  2oth,  when  the  Court  ad 
journed  to  meet  "on  the  second  Wednesday  in  Oc 
tober  next  at  eight  of  the  clock  in  the  morning." 
But  it  never  convened  again. 

And  now  the  charter  was  gone;  the  General  Court 
was  no  more;  the  Theocracy  had  been  overthrown; 
of  the  commonwealth  nothing  was  left  but  the  ruins. 

Great  changes  had  taken  place  between  the  begin 
ning  and  the  end  of  the  commonwealth.  The  popu 
lation  of  Massachusetts,  in  1665,  'ls  supposed  by  Pal- 

(383) 


384  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

frey1  to  have  been  about  twenty-five  thousand,  in 
habiting  fifty-two  towns.  By  the  year  1676  it  is  said 
that  five  hundred  and  fifty  vessels  had  been  built  in 
Massachusetts,  of  which  two  hundred  and  thirty 
ranged  from  fifty  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  tons 
burden.2 

At  the  end  of  the  commonwealth  these  ships  were 
not  only  carrying  on  a  large  trade  with  the  other 
colonies,  but  they  were  crossing  the  Atlantic  bearing 
fish,  lumber,  furs  and  other  products  of  domestic  in 
dustry,  and  returning  laden  with  stores  of  foreign 
goods  suited  to  the  wants  and  tastes  of  the  colonists. 

Captain  Cleyborne,  of  the  Garland  frigate,  who 
was  in  Boston  in  1673,  reported  that  "the  trade  of 
New  England  is  very  great  to  all  parts.  It  hath  be 
come  a  magazine  of  all  commodities.  Ships  daily 
arrive  here  from  Holland,  France,  Spain,  &c.,  bring 
ing  with  them  the  productions  of  these  countries."3 

There  had  been  a  great  increase  in  the  number  of 
artisans  and  in  manufactures.  Josselyn  said  that 
"some  of  their  merchants  are  damnable  rich,"  and 
that  "there  are  none  that  beg  in  the  Countrey." 
Randolph  also  said  that  there  were  "no  beggars." 

In  the  rural  regions  large  tracts  of  land  had  been 
brought  into  cultivation,  the  farms  were  well  stocked 
with  domestic  animals,  and  there  was  abundance  of 
fruit  of  many  kinds. 

Boston  had  grown  greatly.  Its  population  at  the 
end  of  the  commonwealth  probably  considerably  ex 
ceeded  five  thousand.  In  1637,  according  to  Josse- 

1Vol.  3,  p.  35. 

2  David  A.  Wells  in  First  Century  of  Republic,  151. 

•Chalmers's  Annals,  p.  433.     See  also  Id.,  416. 


THE   ANDROS    SEQUEL.  385 

lyn,1  there  were  not  many  houses,  and  but  two  ordi 
naries,  "into  which  if  a  stranger  went  he  was  pres 
ently  followed  by  one  appointed  to  that  Office,  who 
would  thrust  himself  into  his  company  uninvited, 
and  if  he  called  for  more  drink  than  the  Officer 
thought  in  his  judgment  he  could  soberly  bear  away, 
he  would  presently  countermand  it  and  appoint  the 
proportion,  beyond  which  he  could  not  gett  one 
drop."  But  in  1671  he  speaks2  of  many  fair  shops 
of  "Brick,  Stone,  Lime,  handsomely  contrived," 
"three  meeting-houses,"  of  streets  "many  and  large, 
paved  with  pebble  stone,"  and  says  that  "the  town 
is  rich  and  very  populous,"  and  he  does  not  forget  to 
mention  that  "at  the  Tap-houses  in  Boston  I  have  had 
an  ale-quart  spiced  and  sweetened  with  sugar  for  a 
groat." 

The  inhabitants,  especially  of  Boston  and  the 
neighboring  towns,  were  not  only  enjoying  the  com 
forts  of  wealth,  but  had  begun  to  aspire  to  the  pos 
session  of  its  luxuries,  and  this  change  showed  itself 
in  better  houses,  furniture  and  dress  than  the  early 
colonists  could  have  afforded  or  would  have  desired. 

In  a  short  time  after  the  end  of  the  commonwealth 
period,  we  find  even  the  pious  Sewall  sending  to 
London  for  goods  for  his  wife,  his  daughter  and 
himself — "a  pattern  of  good  silk  to  make  my  wife  a 
Gown,"  a  "piece  of  flowered  Lute  string  q  t  be 
tween  30  and  forty  yards  to  make  Gowns  and  Petti 
coats  for  my  daughters,"  "good  black  Paddisway, 
enough  to  make  Two  Womens  Suits,"  an  "end  of 

1  Ttuo  Voyages,  p.  173. 

2  Tivo  Voyages,  pp.  161-162. 

PUR.  REP. — 25 


386  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

coloured  Brodcloath  to  make  myself  a  suit,  shaloon 
to  Line  it,  Buttons,  Silk,  &c.,"  a  "good  strong  black 
Silk  Damask,  or  Lutestring  Flowered  (no  silk  Grass 
to  be  in  it)  To  make  two  Jackets  and  two  pair  of 
Breeches,"  and  "two  pair  of  good  black  silk  Mens 
Stockings."  He  was  also  sending  to  London  for 
"Fring  for  the  Fustian  Bed  the  Worsted  is  for,  andj 
also  lYing  for  half  a  doz.  Chairs  suitable  thereto," 
and  for  a  finer  wedding  outfit  for  his  daughter  Judith 
than  could  be  bought  in  America. 

Great  changes  had  taken  place  among  the  people. 
Winthrop  and  Endicott,  and  the  great  preachers, 
Hooker  and  Cotton  and  Norton,  had  passed  away 
and  new  men  had  come  to  the  front.1 

The  manners  and  tastes  of  the  people  had 
changed — especially  in  Boston  and  in  the  larger 
towns.  In  Roxbury2  "the  more  wealthy  inhabitants 
kept  one  or  more  slaves  and  were  enjoying  the  luxu 
ries,  as  well  as  the  comforts,  of  life  at  the  time  of  the 
vacation  of  the  Charter." 

"Everywhere,"  says  Mr.  Drake3  "the  too  rigid 
austerity  of  the  social  and  religious  life  of  the  Puritan 
pioneers  had  given  place  to  a  freer  and  more  un 
restrained  play  of  the  social  forces.  Intemperance 
had  greatly  increased.  Attendance  at  church  had 
grown  less  constant.  More  costly  dress  and  equi 
page,  and  greater  refinement  of  manners,  began  to 
be  observed." 

1  Hooker  died  in  1647;  Winthrop  in  1649;  Norton  in  1663;  and  Endi 
cott  in  1665. 

2  Henry   H.  Edes,  Charlesto-wn  in    the  Colonial  Period,  i  Mem.  His- 
Boston,  400. 

3  Roxbury  in  the  Colonial  Period,  I  Mem.  His.  Boston,  401-422. 


THE   ANDROS    SEQUEL.  387 

Such  was  the  situation  when,  on  December  20, 1686, 
the  King  Fisher,  a  fifty-gun  ship,  reached  Boston  Har 
bor,  bringing  the  new  governor,  Sir  Edmund  Andros. 
He  had  a  commission  as  " Captain  General  and  Gov 
ernor  in  Chief"  of  all  New  England.  Thirty-nine 
persons,  of  whom  five  might  constitute  a  quorum, 
were  appointed  to  act  as  his  Council.  One  of  these 
was  the  hated  Randolph.  In  the  governor  and 
council  were  vested  all  legislative,  judicial,  ano^xec- 
utive  powers,  with  full  authority,  subject  only  to 
revision  by  the  king,  of  making  laws,  establishing 
courts  and  administering  the  government. 

The  alarm  of  the  colonists  was  allayed  at  first  by 
the  fair  professions  of  Andros  and  his  profuse  expres 
sions  of  a  desire  to  administer  the  government  for 
the  benefit  of  the  people;  and,  for  a  time,  the  colo 
nists  felicitated  themselves  that  in  the  appointment  of 
Andros  they  had  escaped  the  dreaded  butcher,  Col. 
Kirk,  whom  the  king  had  originally  selected  to  act 
as  governor.  But  they  had  escaped  Charybdis  only 
to  be  devoured  by  Scylla. 

It  was  not  long  before  Andros  threw  off  all  disguise 
and  his  designs  became  apparent.  One  of  the  first 
notable  acts  of  the  new  administration  was  the  levy 
of  a  tax  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  government. 
For  protesting  against  this  tax,  John  Wise,  the  min 
ister  of  Ipswich,  and  several  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  town,  were  thrown  into  jail,  denied  the  right  of 
habeas  corpus,  and  heavily  fined,  and  several  of 
them  were  forbidden  to  hold  office.  At  the  trial 
Joseph  Dudley,  one  of  the  judges,  taunted  the  de 
fendants,  when  they  endeavored  to  set  up  their  priv- 


388  THE  PURITAN  REPUBLIC. 

ileges  as  English  subjects,  by  telling  them  that  they 
had  now  no  further  privilege  left  than  "not  to  be 
sold  as  slaves,"  and  insolently  asked  them  if  they 
believed  that  "Joe  and  Tom  may  tell  the  king  what 
money  he  may  have." 

Fines  and  imprisonment  were  visited  upon  all  who 
ventured  to  question  the  authority  or  to  protest  against 
the  tajannical  proceedings  of  the  new  rulers. 

A^w  months  after  Andros  arrived  forcible  pos 
session  was  taken  of  the  South  Church  for  Episcopal 
services. 

The  General  Court  was  abolished  and  the  town 
governments  were  ignored.  Andros  said  to  a  com 
mittee  from  Lynn  that  "there  is  no  such  thing  as  a 
town  in  the  whole  country."  Even  the  assembling 
of  the  citizens  for  deliberation  was  liable  to  be  pun 
ished  as  riotous  or  seditious. 

Exorbitant  fees  were  exacted.  "  The  harpies 
themselves,"  says  Hutchinson,  "quarreled  about 
their  share  of  the  prey."  Taxes  were  levied  by  the 
governor  and  his  council  as  they  pleased,  and  the  tax- 
gatherers  were  relentless  in  their  exactions.  Spies 
and  informers  were  in  every  town. 

All  court  records  were  removed  to  Boston,  so  that 
those  having  business  in  relation  to  the  settlement  of 
estates  were  forced  to  go  there,  and  were  compelled 
sometimes  to  travel  two  hundred  miles  and  to  pay 
extortionate  fees  to  the  officers  until  "the  cry  of  poor 
Widows  and  Fatherless  is  gone  up  to  Heaven  against 
them  on  this  account."1  No  one  was  secure  in  the 

1  Revolution  in  New  England  Justified^  in  Andros   Tracts,  Vol.  i 
pp.  115,  116. 


THE   ANDROS    SEQUEL.  389 

title  to  his  land.  When  a  land-owner  showed  a  deed 
from  the  Indians  he  was  told  that  it  was  " worth  no 
more  than  the  scratch  of  a  bear's  paw,"  and  Ran 
dolph,  the  chief  spirit  of  the  Andros  administration, 
boasted  that  "all  the  inhabitants  of  Boston  will  be 
forced  to  take  new  grants  and  confirmations  of  their 
lands,  which  will  bring  in  vast  profits,"  and  he 
threatened  to  issue  writs  of  ejectment  by  Jfe  cart 
load. 

The  judges  appointed  by  Andros  had  been  selected 
in  the  expectation  that  they  would  prove  themselves 
servile  tools  to  aid  him  in  his  tyrannical  efforts  to 
strip  the  inhabitants  of  their  liberty  and  their  property. 
They  rarely  disappointed  his  expectations.  If  they 
followed  any  English  precedents,  they  were  those 
established  by  the  infamous  Jeffreys  and  Scroggs. 
Everywhere  the  courts  were  turned  into  engines  of 
persecution.  Many  were  ruined  by  enormous  fines; 
others  were  imprisoned  on  vague  charges,  denied  the 
writ  of  habeas  corpus,  and  held  for  months  without 
trial. 

Moreover,  "as  if  to  mock  the  people  of  New 
England,"  says  Professor  Washburn,  a  new  great 
seal  for  the  government  was  adopted  showing  on  one 
side  the  royal  arms  with  the  inscription  "SIGILLVM 
NOV^E  ANGLIC  IN  AMERICA,"  a  figure  of  James  II 
seated  and  two  figures  kneeling  before  him,  one 
tendering  a  petition,  the  other  offering  tribute,  and 
having  inscribed  upon  it  also  this  insulting  motto, 
"Nunquam  Libertas  gratior  extat"^- 

1  Washburn's  Judicial  History  Mass.,  pp.  103-4;  Thomas  C.  Amory, 
paper  read  before  Mass.  His.  Soc.    Proceedings  Mass.  His.  Soc.,  1867- 


390  THE    PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

The  royal  bandits  were  holding  high  carnival. 
Massachusetts  was  still  suffering  from  King  Philip's 
war,  which  had  entailed  immense  destruction  of 
property  and  a  frightful  loss  of  life.  Now  she  lay 
prostrate  and  helpless  under  the  feet  of  her  bitterest 
foes — foes  dreaded  far  more  than  those  whom  the 
colonists  had  vanquished;  for  her  new  enemies 
seem|^^:o  be  resolved  upon  robbing  the  people  of 
all  fW  (possessions  for  which  they  had  labored  so 

^^Hr 

hardj'^nd  of  effacing  every  vestige  of  the  institu 
tions  they  had  struggled  so  long  to  establish.1 

The  "emancipation"  from  Puritan  control  was 
going  on  at  a  great  rate.  The  action  of  Cranfield, 
the  royal  governor  of  the  neighboring  province  of 
New  Hampshire,  in  sending  the  Rev.  Mr.  Moodey 
to  jail  for  his  refusal  to  administer  the  sacrament  ac 
cording  to  the  liturgy  of  the  established  church,  was 
a  fair  sample  of  the  kind  of  religious  toleration  that 
the  Puritans  of  Massachusetts  might  expect  soon  to 

1869,  p.  98.  The  motto  was  garbled  out  of  the  following  quotation  from 
Claudianus: 

"Fallitur  egregio  quisquis  sub  principe  credit 
Servitium.     Nunquam  libertas  gratior  extat 
®>ju,am  sub  rege pio" 

Translated  in  Ramage's  Beautiful  Thoughts  from  Latin  Authors,  5th 
ed.,  p.  161,  as  follows:  "That  man  is  deceived  who  thinks  it  slavery  to 
live  under  a  noble  prince.  Liberty  never  appears  in  a  more  gracious 
form  than  under  a  pious  prince." 

1  Barry's  His.  of  Mass.,  Vol.  i,  Chap.  18  ;  Washburn's  Judicial 
History  of  Mass.,  Chap.  6.  A  complete  history  of  the  administration 
of  Andros  will  be  found  in  the  Andros  Tracts,  published  by  the  Prince 
Society.  Included  in  the  collection  is  a  catalogue,  prepared  by  a  com 
mittee  of  seven,  consisting  of  Thomas  Danforth  and  six  others,  of  the 
"charges  against  Andros  and  others."  In  this  catalogue  will  be  found 
a  brief  synopsis  of  the  principal  charges.  The  editor,  Mr.  Whitmore, 
gives  the  committee  "the  credit  of  great  industry  in  collecting  all  the 
fables  as  well  as  the  truths  against  Andres's  administration." 


THE   ANDROS    SEQUEL.  391 

be  extended  to  them.  Gloom  enveloped  the  land? 
and,  although  the  Puritans  of  the  old  commonwealth 
were  men  of  stout  hearts,  it  must  have  seemed  to 
them  that  all  had  been  lost.  But  all  had  not  been 
lost.  While  Andros  was  at  the  height  of  his 
power  the  people  of  England  again  rebelled  against 
their  monarch.  In  1689  news  was  brought^ over 
of  the  landing  in  England  of  the  Prince  of 
and  the  people  of  Massachusetts  rose  in  a 
posed  Andros,  captured  him  while  he  was 
to  escape,  disguised  in  woman's  clothes,  put  him 
and  Randolph  and  Dudley  in  prison,  set  up  a  provis 
ional  government  and,  for  a  period  of  about  five 
weeks,  until  the  proclaiming  of  William  and  Mary, 
again  enjoyed  the  privileges  of  self-government. 

Still  the  people  of  Massachusetts  were  a  long  way 
from  independence.  The  new  king  of  England, 
though  far  more  in  accord  with  the  religious  views  of 

O  CD 

the  people  of  Massachusetts  than  was  his  predecessor, 
had  no  idea  of  permitting  them  to  set  up  a  republic 
of  their  own.  Other  monarchs  followed  who  viewed 
with  jealous  eyes  the  growth  of  republican  ideas  in 
America.  In  order  to  curtail  the  commerce  of  the 
colonies,  and  to  cripple  their  industries,  oppres 
sive  laws  were  enacted  in  England,  of  which  the 
odious  Acts  of  Trade  and  the  still  more  odious  Stamp 
Act  were  examples.  The  Boston  Port  Bill  was  en 
acted  avowedly  to  punish  Massachusetts  and  to  wipe 
out  Boston.  English  soldiers  were  quartered  on  the 
people  and  a  vain  attempt  was  made  to  awe  their 
representatives  into  subjection  by  surrounding  the 
state-house  with  armed  soldiers  and  planting  cannon 


392  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

to  command  its  doors.  The  culmination  of  all  these 
efforts  to  subdue  the  people  of  Massachusetts  was 
seen  at  Lexington  and  Concord. 

But  in  all  these  years  a  republic  was  growing.  In 
the  beginning  the  colonists  thought  that  liberty  could 
not  live  without  the  charter;  events  proved  that  the 
charter  had  become  as  useless  to  liberty  as  the  shell 
of  corn  is  to  the  oak  after  it  has  struck  its  roots 

fo  the  soil.  When  the  time  came  to  put  forth 
the-eiclaration  of  Independence  there  were  found 
reasons  far  more  cogent  than  the  violations  of  the 
charter,  of  which  the  people  complained  in  the  time 
of  Charles  II;  a  broader  foundation  was  secured 
upon  which  to  base  a  republic  than  any  charter  which 
had  been  granted  by  any  English  monarch.  The 
republic  which  had  been  planted  in  the  Massachusetts 
commonwealth  had  been  further  developed  in  the 
United  Colonies  of  New  England;  it  became  of 
tougher  grain  under  every  effort  of  kings  and  parlia 
ments  to  uproot  it,  until  in  the  end  it  became  part  of 
the  still  greater  republic — THE  UNITED  STATES  OF 
AMERICA. 


XVIII 

THE    PASSING    OF    THE    PURITANS— LOOKING 
BACKWARD  AND  ALSO    LOOKING  FORWARD 


"O  Time,  the  fatal  wrack  of  mortal  things, 
That  draws  Oblivion's  curtains  over  kings — 
Their  sumptuous  monuments  men  know  them  not, 
Their  names  without  a  record  are  forgot, 
Their  parts,  their  ports,  their  pomps,  all  laid  i'  the  dust— 
Nor  wit,  nor  gold,  nor  buildings,  'scape  Time's  rust. 
But  he  whose  name  is  graved  in  the  white  stone, 
Shall  last  and  shine  when  all  of  these  are  gone!" 

— ANNE  BRADSTREET. 

IT  is  to  be  hoped  that  Anne  Bradstreet  and  her 
Puritan  friends  and  neighbors  have  found  the  " white 
stone,"  and  in  it  the  "new  name  written,"  promised 
in  the  Book  of  Revelations.  The  names  of  many 
of  them  and  their  deeds  on  earth  are  deeply  graven 
in  human  history. 

In  recording  the  history  of  the  Massachusetts  Pur 
itans  there  has  been  a  great  change  in  style  from 
that  of  fulsome  eulogy,  characteristic  of  the  early 
historians,  to  the  unsparing  censure  of  modern 
writers,  notably  of  some  in  Massachusetts,  whose 
cardinal  idea  seems  to  be  that  we  magnify  ourselves  in 
proportion  as  we  belittle  our  ancestors.  In  the  writ 
ings  of  this  new  school  the  history  of  the  Puritan 
age  in  Massachusetts  is  delineated  as  a  dreary  waste. 
We  look  in  vain  for  historic  figures.  All  have  dis- 

(393) 


394  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

appeared  or  dwindled  into  insignificance,  and  in  their 
places  we  find  only  an  intolerant  and  narrow-minded 
set  of  fanatics.  We  search  for  heroic  achievements 
and  noble  deeds*  we  find  nothing  worthy  of  note 
unless  it  be  something  to  call  forth  denunciation  or 
ridicule.  The  very  age  in  which  our  Puritan  an- 
ceston;lived  has  been  obliterated  and  we  see  only  an 
sterile,  forbidding,  unproductive,  its  his- 
d  only  with  boulders  and  stunted  growth." 
has  been  said  about  the  bigotry  and  in 
tolerance  of  the  Massachusetts  Puritans,  much  re 
mains  to  be  said  in  their  favor. 

It  may  be  that  if  Winthrop  and  Endicott  and  their 
associates  had  never  been  heard  of,  and  their  places 
in  the  Massachusetts  commonwealth  had  been  filled 
by  Roger  Williams,  Gorton,  Coddington  and  the 
motley  brood  that  flocked  to  the  shores  of  Narragan- 
sett  Bay,  we  should  have  had  a  grotesque  conglomera 
tion,  that,  for  a  time,  might  have  assumed  the  sem 
blance  of  a  government,  of  which  possibly  the  chief 
features  might  have  been  religious  and  political 
toleration;  but  it  is  probable  that  the  discordant  ele 
ments  would  soon  have  resolved  themselves  into 
chaos.  All  this,  however,  is  conjecture.  The  solid 
historical  fact  is  that  Winthrop,  Endicott,  and  their 
Puritan  associates,  founded  a  commonwealth  and 
held  it  together  long  enough  to  make  it  the  corner 
stone  of  the  New  England  confederacy  and  the  begin 
ning  of  a  great  republic. 

The  Puritans  believed  in  morality  in  public  and  in 
private  life.  Undoubtedly  their  preachers  preached 
long  sermons  and  made  long  prayers.  They  required 


THE   PASSING   OF   THE   PURITANS.  395 

a  rigid  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  and  they  did  not 
concern  themselves  about  making  either  their  churches 
or  their  religion  attractive.  The  unique  methods  of 
some  of  our  modern  preachers  and  the  sensational 
performances  carried  on  in  some  of  our  modern 
churches,  as  reported  from  time  to  time  in  the  news 
papers,  show  that  in  the  effort  to  make  chjorches 
popular  and  religion  entertaining  we  have 
some  schemes  entirely  unknown  to  our 
and  compel  us  to  think  more  kindly  of  'the**'  old 
Puritan  minister  with  his  hour-glass,  his  long  ser 
mons  and  his  long  prayers. 

The  Puritans  also  believed  in  education.  The 
school-house  was  as  characteristic  a  feature  of  every 
New  England  settlement  as  was  the  meeting-house. 
Their  principles  and  practice  were  in  striking  con 
trast  to  those  of  the  royal  governor  of  Virginia.  In 
1670  the  English  Lords  Commissioners  of  Planta 
tions  proposed  to  Sir  William  Berkeley,  who  was 
then  governor  of  Virginia,  a  series  of  questions  con 
cerning  the  condition  of  affairs  in  his  jurisdiction,  to 
one  of  which  that  eminent  apostle  of  ignorance 
made  this  remarkable  answer:  "But  I  thank  God 
there  are  no  free  schools  nor  printing,  and  I  hope 
we  shall  not  have  these  hundred  years,  for  learning 
has  brought  disobedience,  and  heresy,  and  sects  into 
the  world,  and  printing  has  divulged  them,  and  libels 
against  the  best  Government.  God  keep  us  from 
both."1 

The  Puritans  were  intense  lovers  of  liberty  and 
natural  rebels  against  tyranny.  As  shown  in  former 

1  Hening's  Statutes,  Vol.  i,  p.  517. 


396  THE   PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

chapters,  their  first  body  of  laws  contained  all  the 
cardinal  principles  of  Magna  Charta  and  the  common 
law  of  England  for  the  protection  of  the  liberty  of 
the  citizens  and  of  the  rights  of  property. 

They  were  economical  in  their  ways  of  life.  There 
were  no  great  fortunes  in  those  days  in  New  Eng 
land.  None  were  then  to  be  made  by  gigantic 
trusts  and  combinations,  by  wrecking  railroads  and 
watering  stock  and  cornering  wheat.  Most  of  the 
early  Puritans  had  large  families;  the  soil  was  poor; 
and,  to  make  both  ends  meet,  they  were  compelled 
to  be  thrifty  and  frugal.  But,  if  they  did  not  spend 
great  sums  in  gambling  and  horse-racing  and  cock- 
fighting,  they  were  not  stingy  in  providing  comforta 
ble  houses  for  their  families  and  barns  for  their  stock, 
meeting-houses  and  school-houses,  and  a  substantial 
education  for  their  sons  and  daughters. 

They  were  economical  also  in  their  public  expen 
ditures.  It  might  be  well  if  some  modern  legislature 
would  imitate — but  it  is  useless  to  hope  that  any  ever 
will  imitate — the  example  of  the  General  Court  of 
Massachusetts  in  its  declaration  made  in  1646: 

"We  spend  nothing  superfluously  in  buildings,  feasting, 
pensions,  public  gratuities,  officers  fees,  or  the  like;  nay  we 
are  ashamed  sometimes  at  our  parsimoniousness,  but  that 
we  had  rather  beare  shame  and  blame  than  over  burden  the 
people.  Such  as  are  in  chief  office  amongst  us  are  content 
to  live  beneath  the  power  of  their  places,  that  they  might 
ease  the  Common  charge."1 

But  in  the  defense  of  their  country  the  Puritans  of 
Massachusetts  were  never  niggard  with  their  contribu- 

1  Hutchinson's  Coll,  of  Papers,  p,  209. 


THE   PASSING   OF   THE   PURITANS.  397 

tions.  Not  only  did  they  contribute  liberally  for  their 
own  defense  in  all  the  Indian  wars  during  the  common 
wealth  period,  but  they  contributed  more  liberally 
than  any  other  American  colony  to  the  expenses  of 
carrying  on  the  Revolutionary  War.  Official  statis 
tics  show  that  from  the  beginning  of  the  revolution  to 
1790  Massachusetts^  excess  of  expenditures  over  re 
ceipts  in  behalf  of  the  general  government  was  nearly 
equal  to  that  of  all  four  of  the  states  of  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  Virginia  and  Maryland,  and  nearly 
ten  times  as  much  as  Virginia,  Maryland,  North 
Carolina,  South  Carolina  and  Georgia.1 

Wherever  the  Puritans  went  they  impressed  on 
the  community  the  characteristics  which  made  them 
a  moral,  law-abiding,  liberty-loving  and  thrifty  peo 
ple.  When  General  Putnam  and  his  New  England 
colony  emigrated  to  the  Northwest  Territory  and 
settled  at  Marietta,  they  took  their  preacher  and 
teacher  along  with  them,  and  the  first  thing  they 
did,  after  building  a  stockade  to  protect  themselves 
from  the  Indians  and  houses  to  shelter  their  families, 
was  to  erect  a  building  for  a  church  and  a  school. 
They  next  framed  a  code  of  laws,  and,  as  they  had 
no  printing  press,  the  laws  were  published  by  nailing 
a  copy  of  them  to  a  tree  on  the  banks  of  the  Muskin- 
gum.2  Thus  they  grasped  the  essential  principles  of 
republican  government:  morality,  education  and 
obedience  to  law.  They  were  doing  this  when  the 
people  of  France  were  murdering  their  priests,  hold 
ing  their  drunken  orgies  in  the  churches,  putting  in 

1  Hudson's  Hist,  of  Marlborough,  185. 

*  Walker's  His.  of  Athens  Co.,  Ohio,  p.  86. 


39$  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

the  pulpits  prostitutes  costumed  as  Goddesses  of 
Reason,  and  trying  to  establish  a  Utopian  republic 
on  the  ruins  of  law,  religion  and  the  rights  of  prop 
erty. 

Our  laws  and  customs  would  not  have  fitted  the 
Puritans  any  better  than  theirs  would  now  fit  us. 
And  I  imagine  that,  if  the  other  side  could  be  heard, 
and  if  we  could  listen  to  some  of  the  accusations 
which  the  Puritans,  if  living,  might  justly  bring 
against  the  people  of  this  age,  their  laws  and  cus 
toms,  their  public  and  private  life,  it  would  probably 
appear  that,  notwithstanding  our  great  advance  in 
some  things,  yet,  in  other  things  essential  to  good 
government,  we  have  not  improved  so  much  on  the 
ways  of  our  ancestors  as  we  are  in  the  habit  of  tak 
ing  for  granted. 

The  old  Puritans  have  passed  away,  and  most  of 
their  kind  have  also  passed  away.  "The  old  order 
changeth,  yielding  place  to  new."  Between  the  be 
ginning  and  the  end  of  the  commonwealth  great 
changes  occurred  in  the  religious,  industrial  and 
social  life  of  the  Puritan  settlers  of  Massachusetts, 
noticeable  especially  in  Boston  and  in  the  adjacent 
towns,  but  not  so  noticeable  in  Sudbury,  Maryborough 
and  the  other  frontier  settlements.  To-day,  however, 
the  changes  from  early  times  are  manifest  every 
where,  so  manifest  that  no  one  can  overlook  them  or 
fail  to  perceive  their  significance. 

Great  manufactories  now  flourish  in  regions  once 
devoted  almost  exclusively  to  agriculture.  The  peo 
ple,  native  and  foreign,  are  flocking  to  the  cities  and 
in  the  cities  they  are  crowding  the  manufactories. 


THE    PASSING    OF   THE    PURITANS.  399 

Notable  changes  have  taken  place  in  the  character 
of  the  population.  One  marked  peculiarity  of  the 
early  settlers  of  Massachusetts  and  the  other  parts  of 
New  England  was,  that,  almost  to  a  man,  they  were 
Englishmen  or  of  English  descent.  Most  of  the  first 
settlers  came  from  the  eastern  and  southern  counties 
of  England.  It  has  been  estimated  that  at  the  be 
ginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  more  than  ninety- 
eight  in  one  hundred  of  the  New  England  people 
were  of  pure  English  descent.1  Jeclidiah  Morse  pub 
lished  the  7th  edition  of  his  geography  in  1819,  and 
in  this,  speaking  of  the  New  England  population,  he 
said:  "The  great  mass  of  the  inhabitants  are  of 
English  origin.  New  England  was  settled  entirely 
by  Englishmen,  except  a  few  towns  in  the  hilly 
country  of  the  county  of  Hampshire  in  Massachu 
setts,  which  were  settled  by  a  colony  from  Ireland, 
and  a  few  in  Londonderry  in  New  Hampshire.  With 
these  exceptions,  the  settled  inhabitants  of  New  Eng 
land  are  even  now  entirely  of  English  origin."2 

In  an  address  before  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society  in  1844,  Dr.  Palfrey  said:3  "With  scarcely 
exceptions  enough  to  deserve  any  account  in  the 
enumeration,  we  who  now  constitute  the  states  of 
New  England  are  descendants  of  Englishmen  estab 
lished  here  before  the  year  1643." 

But  now  New  England  is  being  rapidly  filled  with 
those  of  foreign  birth  and  their  descendants.  The 
invasion  is  not  as  war-like,  but  it  seems  to  be  as  cer- 

1  Fiske,  Beginnings  of  N.  E.,  141. 

8  Morse,  Universal  Geography,  Vol.  I,  p.  211. 

3  Mass.  His.  Coll.,  3d  Ser.,  Vol.  9,  p.  178. 


400  THE    PURITAN   REPUBLIC. 

tain  and  as  irresistible  as  that  of  the  fierce  Goths  and 
the  fiercer  Huns  who  stood  at  last  before  the  gates  of 
Rome.  To-day,  what  the  writer  observed  some 
years  ago  in  Marlborough,  Mass.,  is  noticeable  in 
many  parts  of  that  state,  as  well  as  in  other  places 
in  New  England.  In  early  times  the  inhabitants  of 
Marlborough  were  exclusively  of  English  Puritan 
stock.  Now  the  names  of  the  Rices,  the  Brighams, 
the  Bigelows,  the  Howes  and  others,  once  so  num 
erous  there,  must  be  sought  in  the  inscriptions 
upon  the  tombstones,  while  in  the  streets,  at  every 
step,  one  meets  the  Canadian  and  the  Irishman. 
What  has  become  of  the  descendants  of  the  first 
settlers?  The  stock  has  not  run  out.  Those  who 
left  New  England  pushed  forward  to  other  regions, 
constituting  the  advance  guard  in  the  settlement  of 
the  states  originally  comprised  within  the  limits  of 
the  great  region  known  as  the  Northwest  Territory, 
and  forming  no  inconsiderable  portion  of  the  early 
settlers  of  New  York  and  other  states.  They  have 
largely  helped  to  leaven  the  character  of  the  nation. 
"The  twenty-six  thousand  New  Englanders  of  1640," 
says  Mr.  Fiske,1  "have  in  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  increased  to  something  like  fifteen  million. 
From  these  men  have  come  at  least  one-fourth  of 
the  present  population  of  the  United  States."2 

But,  more  striking  than  any  other  change,  is  that 
in  the  religious  character  of  the  people.  In  the  time 
of  the  commonwealth  it  would  have  been  accounted 

1  Beginnings  of  New  England,  143. 

2  See  chapter  by  Francis  A.  Walker  on  Growth  and  Distribution  of 
Population:  First  Century  of  Republic,  p.  211. 


THE    PASSING   OF   THE    PURITANS.  40! 

sacrilege  to  read  in  church  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer.  Endicott  had  torn  from  the  English  flag  the 
emblem  of  the  cross  because  it  was  a  symbol  of 
Popery.  But  now,  near  the  site  of  the  old  Puritan 
meeting-house  in  Marlborough,  stands  by  far  the 
most  stately  edifice  in  the  town.  Its  spire  overlooks 
the  old  Puritan  cemetery  and  casts  its  shadow  across 
the  plain  stones  marking  the  places  where  rest  those 
to  whom,  in  life,  nothing  was  more  hateful  than  the 
doctrines  now  taught  over  their  graves.  It  is  almost 
needless  to  add  that  this  edifice  is  a  Roman  Catholic 
cathedral. 

It  is  evident  that  the  "emancipation"  of  Massa 
chusetts  is  still  going  on  at  a  rapid  rate.  Without 
offering  any  criticisms  or  theories  as  to  the  cause  of 
these  changes,  or  their  probable  effect  upon  the  gov 
ernment,  the  laws,  the  customs,  and  the  moral  and 
social  life  of  New  England,  Dr.  Ellis  has  concisely 
summed  up  the  present  situation  in  these  words: 
"We  put  the  sum  and  substance,  the  facts  and  their 
import,  of  all  the  transformation  that  has  been 
wrought  there,  in  a  single  sentence  when  we  say  that 
men,  principles,  habits,  and  institutions  have  now 
the  ascendancy  in  the  Puritan  heritage  of  which  the 
fathers  intended  and  hoped  to  have  rid  themselves 
and  their  posterity  for  all  time."1 

What  will  New  England  and  Massachusetts  be 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  hence,  when  rural  New 
England  shall  have  been  deserted,  when  countless 
thousands  yet  to  come  from  Canada  and  across  the 

^Puritan  Age,  8. 
PUR.  REP.— 26 


402  THE   PURITAN    REPUBLIC. 

ocean  shall  have  settled  on  the  Metrimac,  and 
when,  as  the  Rev.  Joseph  Cook  predicts,  Plymouth 
Rock  shall  have  become  the  corner-stone  of  a  factory  ? 

"THE  PAST  AT  LEAST  is  SECURE." 


THE   END. 


INDEX 


Adams,  Charles  Francis:  on  the 
literature  of  the  theologico-gla- 
cial  period,  184. 

Address:  issued  by  Puritan  emi 
grants  from  England  to  Amer 
ica,  17. 

Agriculture:  allotment  of  lands, 
131;  fertility  of  soil,  131;  do 
mestic  animals,  132;  agricul 
tural  implements,  132 ;  laws  for 
benefit  of  farmers,  132,  133; 
inventory  of  a  prosperous  farm 
er,  157. 

Ainsworth:  version  of  Psalms,  110. 

Alden,  John :  wooing  of  Priscilla, 
163. 

Allegiance:  oath  of  required,  37, 
354 ;  colonists'  idea  of  their  al 
legiance  to  England,  319,324; 
additional  proof  of,  328. 

Almanacs:  early,  187. 

Amendments  and  Jeofails:  re-en 
actment  of  English  statute  of, 
51. 

Amsterdam:  English  Puritans  at,3. 

Amusements,  Games,  Etc. :  laws 
against,  110;  effect  of  absence 
of,  155. 

Andover:  in  King  Philip's  war,  92. 

Andros, Edmund, Gov. :  his  arrival, 
387;  powers  given  him  and 
council,  387;  his  fair  profes 
sions,  387 ;  his  tyrannical  rule, 
387 ;  his  judges,  389 ;  changes 
the  great  seal,  389 ;  deposed  and 
imprisoned,  391.  See  Chap. 
XVII,  The  Andros  Sequel. 

Andros  Sequel,  The:  Chap.  XVII, 
pp.  383-392. 

AntinomianControversy,21.5 ;  prev 
alence  of  religious  vagaries  dur 
ing  this  period,  248. 

Apparel:  laws  against  extrava 
gance  in,  97;  Ward's  sermon 


against  female  fashions,  99 ;  de 
bate  between  Roger  Williams 
and  John  Cotton  on  women's 
veils,  100;  punishment  for 
wicked  apparel,  101;  recogni 
tion  of  rank  in  laws  regulating, 
128. 

Apprentices :  to  be  kept  employed, 
131;  education  of,  174. 

Aquidneck:  Ann  Hutchinson  goes 
to,  232. 

Articles  of  Confederation :  of  New 
England,  308. 

Assistants :  first  meeting  in  Amer 
ica,  34;  efforts  to  perpetuate 
their  power,  35,  284;  presided 
as  magistrates,  64;  struggle 
with  deputies  for  a  right  to  a 
negative  vote,  288 ;  action  of 
on  trial  of  Gorton,  292 ;  vote  to 
submit  to  demands  of  King 
Charles  II,  378. 

Austin,  Ann :  invades  the  com 
monwealth,  237. 

Banishment :  for  immoral  conduct, 
41 ;  for  heretical  opinions,  41 ; 
without  any  specific  charge,  44 ; 
what  crimes  so  punished  by, 
57. 

Baptists:  laws  against,  200 ;  doors 
of  first  meeting  house  nailed  up 
by  order  of  General  Court,  204 ; 
persecution  of,  235,  237 ;  finally 
established  a  church  in  Boston, 
237 ;  majority  of  people  opposed 
to  persecution  of,  252 ;  persecu 
tion  of  in  other  colonies,  258, 
261. 

Barbadoes:  trade  with,  134. 

Bartholomew,  Rev.:  at  trial  of 
Ann  Hutchinson,  228. 

Batchelor,  Rev.  Stephen:  attempt 
of  General  Court  to  compel  him 


(403) 


4°4 


INDEX. 


and  his  wife  to  live  together, 
1 23 

Bay  Path,  108. 

Bay  Psalm  Book :  used  in  church 
services,  170;  its  great  popu 
larity,  186. 

Becke,  Alex.:  gets  damages  of 
Joyce  Bradwick  for  breach  of 
promise,  124. 

Beecher,  Rev.  Henry  Ward:  an 
ecdote  by  of  introduction  of 
stove  in  meeting-house  in  Litch- 
field,  Ct.,  166. 

Beginning,  The,  Chap.  I,  pp.  1-26. 

Bellingham,  Gov.  Richard:  one  of 
committee  to  draft  code  of  laws, 
45,  46;  a  lawyer,  68. 

Bellingham,  Widow:  Sewall's  re 
gret  as  to  her  case,  72. 

Bennett,  Samuel :  fined  for  speak 
ing  disrespectfully  of  the  town, 
60. 

Berkeley,  Gov. :  As  an  apostle  of 
ignorance,  395. 

Biblical  Commonwealth :  effort 
to  establish,  193. 

Bigelows  of  Marlborough,  400. 

Bishop,  :  at  trial  of 

Ann  Hutchinson,  227. 

Blackstone,  William:  Settlement 
at  Shawmut,  25. 

Blackstone,  Sir  William:  his  be 
lief  in  witchcraft,  63. 

Blasphemy:  denned  and  punished, 
200,  204. 

Blue  Anchor  Inn :  at  Boston,  107. 

Body  of  Liberties :  adopted,  47 ; 
Rev.  Nathaniel  Ward's  work  in 
framing,  49 ;  why  so  called,  49 ; 
principal  provisions  of,  49 ;  con 
tained  essential  provisions  of 
Magna  Charta,  63 ;  amendment 
of  as  to  churches,  203. 

Books:  private  libraries,  175;  cost 
of  books,  177 ;  governmental 
supervision  over  printing,  179 ; 
number  and  kind  of  early  pub 
lications,  179;  the  religious 
books,  188 ;  comparison  of  the 
ological  and  law  books  of  the 
17th  century,  191.  See  Chap. 
IX,  Education,  Books  and  Lit 
erature. 

Book- Stores:  in  Boston  in  early 
times,  175. 


Boston:  settlement  of  William 
Blackstone  there,  25;  streets 
not  lighted  until  1774,  95 ;  dis 
tinction  between  life  there  and 
on  the  frontier,  145;  book 
stores  in,  175;  great  fires  in, 
378;  growth  during  common 
wealth  period,  332,  384 ;  changes 
in  manners  and  tastes  of  peo 
ple  between  beginning  and  end 
of  commonwealth,  386,  398. 

Bradstreet,  Anne:  her  poems,  181. . ! 

Bradstreet,  Governor  Simon:  he 
and  Norton  sent  as  agents  to 
England,  340;  answer  brought 
by  them  from  Charles  II  to  Gen 
eral  Court,  340. 

Bradivicke,  Joyce :  sued  by  Alex. 
Becke  for  breach  of  promise, 
124. 

Branding:  what  crimes  punished 
by,  57. 

Brattle,  Thomas :  his  coat  of  arms, 
129. 

Brenton :  answer  of  General  Court 
to,  308. 

Brewster,  M. :  the  Quaker,  245. 

Breivster,  Elder,  residence  at 
Scrooby,  1 ;  member  of  Leyden 
congregation,  4 ;  his  library, 176. 

Bridgewater:  in  King  Philip's  war, 
92. 

Brighams:   of  Marlborough,  400. 

Brimsmead,  Rev. :  his  learning, 
196. 

Brookfield,  in  King  Philip's  war, 
92. 

Brown,  James:  punished  for 
drunkenness,  104. 

Brown,  John:  at  Harper's  Ferry, 
23. 

Browne,  Samuel :  a  lawyer,  68. 

Brownes:  banishment  of,  210. 

Bulkeley,  Richard:  one  of  com 
mittee  to  draft  code  of  laws,  46 ; 
he  and  Stoughton  sent  as  agents 
to  England,  363 ;  remain  nearly 
three  years,  364;  their  return, 
366. 

Bullivant,  Dr. :  a  patron,  69. 

Burgess,  Robert:  presented  for 
bad  corn-grinding,  60. 

Burns,  Robert:  "The  Cotter's  Sat 
urday  Night,"  160. 

Bussaker,  Peter:  punished  for 
slighting  the  magistrates,  40. 


INDEX. 


4°5 


Cambridge :  General  Court  of  elec 
tion  held  there,  218. 

Cambridge  Platform:  adopted, 251. 

Candles:  in  the  time  of  common 
wealth,  95. 

Canonchet,  Chief:  gathers  war 
riors  in  fort,  90 ;  his  escape,  91 : 
death  and  barbarity  of  his  exe 
cution,  89,  91. 

Capital  Punishment:  for  what 
crimes,  50,  56 ;  based  on  scrip 
tural  authority,  50,  57. 

Cards  and  Dice:  prohibited,  110. 

Catholics:  persecution  of  in  Rhode 
Island,  265;  in  New  York,  259. 

Chancery:  courts  of,  38. 

Charles  I :  his  accession,  5 ;  death, 
329. 

Charles  II ;  message  to  Governor 
Endicott  in  behalf  of  the  Quak 
ers,  239;  his  dissolute  reign, 
299,  377;  ingratitude  to  old 
friends  inEngland,  316;  shame 
ful  treatment  of  Virginians,  317 ; 
his  restoration,  337 ;  address  of 
General  Court  to,  338;  another 
address,  340 ;  failure  to  comply 
with  his  demands,  342;  sends 
commissioners,  342;  their  re 
ception  by  General  Court,  343 ; 
its  evasion  of  his  demands,  343 ; 
General  Court  sends  a  petition 
to,  344;  claim  of  governmental 
powers  in,  344 ;  Clarendon's  re 
ply,  345 ;  treatment  by  General 
Court  of  those  favoring  compli 
ance  with  his  demands,  350; 
General  Court  makes  present 
to  him  of  load  of  ship  masts, 
350;  frivolous  conduct  while 
De  Ruyter  was  blockading  Lon 
don,  357;  his  threat  to  annul 
the  charter,  361 ;  sends  letter 
by  Stoughton  and  Bulkeley  to 
General  Court,  366;  continued 
failure  of  General  Court  to  com 
ply  with  his  demands,  367 ; 
sends  another  letter,  368 ;  again 
sends  letter  threatening  annul 
ment  of  charter,  368;  sends 
Randolph  with  another  letter, 
threatening  a  quo  icarranto,  368 ; 
story  of  attempt  of  Massachu 
setts  authorities  to  bribe,  374; 
governor  and  assistants  favor 
submitting  to  his  demands,  but 


deputies  refuse,  378;  more  ad 
dresses  sent  to,  378 ;  his  death, 
380. 

Charlestown:  settlement  of,  25; 
plan  of  town  government,  273. 

Charter:  (of  governor  and  com 
pany  of  the  Massachusetts  bay) ; 
procured,  16;  transfer  to  Amer 
ica,  16 ;  question  as  to  legality 
of  transfer,  25 ;  why  prized  by 
the  colonists,  28,  321 ;  proprie 
tary  rights  granted  by,  28 ;  gov 
ernmental  powers  conferred  by, 
29 ;  conferred  on  all  inhabitants 
the  liberties  and  immunities  of 
Englishmen,  31,  242;  jurisdic- 
tional  territory  left  undefined, 
32;  construction  of  it  by  the 
colonists,  33, 319,  325 ;  conferred 
no  authority  to  banish  Quakers, 
242 ;  effect  of  revocation  on  the 
Theocracy,  253;  colonists  based 
claim  of  right  to  independent 
government  upon,  318;  demand 
of  Privy  Council  for  its  produc 
tion,  322 ;  institution  of  first  quo 
warranto  to  annul,  323;  further 
demand  for  return  of,  323 ;  why 
colonists  did  not  ask  for  en 
largement  of  charter  powers, 
327 ;  no  authority  in  it  for  gov 
ernmental  powers  exercised  by 
colonists,  355 ;  second  quo  war 
ranto  begun,  375;  arguments  of 
the  elders  against  relinquishing, 
376;  Robert  Humphreys  em 
ployed  to  defend,  378 ;  judgment 
and  grounds  of  forfeiture,  379. 
See  Chap.  XV,  XVI,  The  Strug 
gle  for  Independence,  etc. 

Checkly:  a  patron,  69. 

Chelmsford:  in  King  Philip's  war. 
92. 

Child-Life:  in  commonwealth  pe 
riod,  158,  168. 

Child,  Robert:  petition  of  him 
and  others  to  General  Court, 
234;  complaints  in  England 
against  Massachusetts,  324. 

Children:  See  Child-Life ;  Parents 
and  Children. 

Christison,  Wenlock:  trial  and 
sentence,  238,  239. 

Christmas:  celebration  of  forbid 
den,  109. 


.406 


INDEX. 


Churches:  Jaws  compelling  at 
tendance  upon  church  services, 
163,  205;  the  meeting-house, 
165;  recognition  of  rank  in 
seating  the  congregation,  166; 
the  minister,  167;  the  tithing 
man's  duties  at,  168 ;  how  con 
gregation  summoned,  169;  or 
der  of  exercises,  169;  instru 
mental  music,  170;  hymn-books 
used,  170;  taldng  up'the  collec 
tion,  172 ;  close  of  services,  172 ; 
provisions  of  Body  of  Liberties 
to,  202 ;  care  to  see  that  churches 
were  orthodox,  202  ;  not  allowed 
to  call  minister  without  consent 
of  neighboring  churches,  204; 
laws  prohibiting  disturbance  of, 
204 ;  only  church  members  eli 
gible  to  be  commissioners  of 
New  England  Confederation, 
309.  See  Meeting-Houses ;  Min 
isters;  Puritan  Sabbath;  Rise 
and  Fall  of  Theocracy. 

Clarendon,  Lord:  reply  to  peti 
tion  of  General  Court,  345. 

Clark,  John  :  punishment  of,  235. 

Clay,  Henry:  reception  by  Qua 
kers  at  Richmond,  Indiana,  267. 

Clergy:  see  Ministers. 

Cobbett,  Rev.  John:  expenses  of 
his  funeral,  127. 

•Codding ton,  Gov.  William:  at 
trial  of  Ann  Hutchinson,  229, 
231 ;  banishment,  232 ;  orders 
whipping  of  Gorton,  262;  Gen 
eral  Court  refuses  to  negotiate 
with,  308;  answer  to  his  request 
for  admission  of  Rhode  Island 
into  New  England  confedera 
tion,  308. 

Coggan,  John:  a  patron,  69. 

Coggeshall,  Gov.  John:  at  trial 
of  Ann  Hutchinson,  227 ;  ban 
ishment,  232. 

Coke,  John:  his  execution,  257. 

Colburn, :  at  trial  of  Ann 

Hutchinson,  231. 

Commerce:  with  other  countries, 
134;  effect  of  expansion  upon 
the  theocracy,  252 ;  increase  of 
during  commonwealth  period, 
332,  384. 

'Commissioners,  of  King  Charles 
II :  sent  to  Massachusetts,  342 ; 
refusal  of  General  Court  to  rec 


ognize  their  authority,  347 ;  at 
tempt  to  hear  appeals,  349; 
their  recall,  350. 

Commissioners,  of  plantations : 
control  of  colonies  vested  in, 
322. 

Commissioners:  for  trial  of  small 
causes,  64,  275. 

Compact:  signed  in  cabin  of  May 
flower,  270. 

Concord:  cemetery  at,  126. 

Connecticut:  Winthrop's  criticism 
on  submission  of  its  form  of 
government  to  vote  of  the  peo 
ple,  284 ;  negotiations  of  for 
New  England  confederation, 
303,  304 ;  character  of  early  set 
tlers,  304;  difference  between 
Connecticut  and  Massachusetts 
form  of  government,  304,  305; 
shyness  about  entering  confed 
eration,  305;  dissensions  with 
Massachusetts,  305 ;  excellence 
of  first  constitution,  305;  be 
comes  member  of  New  England 
confederation,  307 ;  towns  and 
population  at  that  time,  313; 
close  of  its  colonial  records,  314. 

Connecticut  Path :  108. 

Constables:  powers  and  duties, 
164,  275. 

Cook,  Rev.  Joseph :  his  predic 
tion,  402. 

Cotton,  Rev.  John :  one  of  a  com 
mittee  to  draft  a  code  of  laws, 
45;  his  "Moses,  his  Judicials," 
45 ;  debate  with  Roger  Williams 
on  women's  veils,  100;  his  rules 
for  trading,  142;  his  "Spiritual 
Milk  for  American  Babes," 
186;  character  of  his  writings, 
188,  189 ;  quoted  as  authority  in 
England,  192;  had  achieved 
distinction  in  England,  196; 
his  learning  and  industry,  196  ; 
fugitive  from  England,  197 ; 
veneration  of  people  for,  198 ; 
influence  in  the  commonwealth, 
207;  favored  committing  im 
portant  business  to  the  elders, 
208 ;  disputation  with  Roger 
Williams  after  latter's  banish 
ment,  212 ;  impressed  by  teach 
ings  of  Ann  Hutchinson,  216; 
presence  at  her  trial,  228 ;  nar 
row  escape  from  condemnation 


INDEX. 


407 


as  a  heretic,  233 ;  finally  re 
stored  to  confidence  of  his 
brother  ministers,  229 ;  zeal  for 
persecution  of  Baptists,  236; 
opposition  to  democracy,  282; 
favored  a  theocracy,  282;  fa 
vored  electing  magistrates  for 
life,  282. 

Council  for  New  England :  grant 
by  of  land  to  Massachusetts 
Company,  15 ;  its  failure  to  plant 
a  colony  in  America,  15. 

Council  of  Foreign  Plantations: 
organization,  339. 

Counties:  organization,  281. 

County  Courts :  organization,  64. 

Court  of  Assistants.  See  Assist 
ants. 

Courts  (of  commonwealth) :  no 
provision  for  in  charter,  38 ;  all 
judicial  power  at  first  exercised 
by  General  Court,  38;  various 
courts  afterwards  established, 
38 ;  rules  for  administering  jus 
tice  in  absence  of  laws,  43; 
adoption  of  English  statute  of 
amendments  and  jeofails,  51 ; 
forms  of  judicial  proceedings 
and  writs,  65;  Lechford's  ac 
count  of  the  courts  in  the  early 
commonwealth  period,  65;  pro 
vision  allowing  jurors  to  consult 
ministers,  65;  records  of  judg 
ments  required  to  be  kept,  66 ; 
litigants  and  attorneys  fined  for 
speaking  over  one  hour,  74; 
process  in  name  of  common 
wealth,  354;  records  removed 
to  Boston  under  Andros,  388. 
See  Puritan  Laws,  etc. ;  Law 
yers. 

Courts  (English) :  in  time  of 
Charles  I,  1,  7. 

Courtship :  opportunities  for,  111 ; 
Judge  Sewall's  courtships,  113 ; 
none  allowed  on  Saturday 
night,  163. 

Craddock,  Gov. :  directed  by  com 
missioners  of  plantations  to 
produce  charter,  322. 

Crandall,  John:  punishment  of, 
235. 

Cranfield,  Gov. :  concocts  story  of 
attempt  to  bribe  the  king,  374 ; 
persecution  of  Rev.  Moodey, 
391. 


Crimes :  punishment  for,  56. 

Cromwell,  Oliver:  attempt  to  es 
cape  from  England,  9;  attitude 
of  commonwealth  to,  320,  324 ; 
letter  to  from  General  Court, 
330;  colonists  not  willing  that 
he  should  rule  over  them,  331 ; 
steadfast  friend  of  the  com 
monwealth,  331 ;  its  prosperity 
during  his  time,  332 ;  position, 
of  England  under  his  rule,  357. 

Currency:  scarcity  of  money,  134 ; 
wampum  currency,  135;  mus 
ket  balls,  135 ;  corn  and  other 
commodities,  136 ;  establishment 
of  mint,  136 ;  pine  tree  shillings, 
137;  nobanksnor  "fiafmoney, 
137. 

Dancing:  not  favored,  110. 

Davenport,  Justice:  Sewall's  ad 
vice  to,  72. 

Davenport,  Rev.:  quoted  as  au 
thority  in  England,  192. 

Declaration  of  Independence :  rea 
sons  for  did  not  exist  in  early 
commonwealth  period,315 ;  sub 
sequent  reasons,  317. 

Deerfield:  in  King  Philip's  war, 
92;  meeting-house  at,  166,  167. 

Delaware :  laws  against  witch 
craft,  63. 

Democracy :  clergy  against,  282. 
See  Chap.  XIII,  "  How  the  Re 
public  Grew,"  etc. 

Dennison,  Widow:  courtship  of 
by  Judge  Sewall,  114. 

Deputies :  first  election  of  to  Gen 
eral  Court,  285;  clashing  be 
tween  them  and  assistants,  287 ; 
finally  sit  as  separate  body,  289 ; 
in  closer  touch' with  the  people, 
292;  action  at  trial  of  Gorton, 
292 ;  vote  not  to  submit  to  de 
mands  of  King  Charles  II,  378. 

De  Kuyter,  Admiral :  blockade  of 
London, 356. 

Descents:  statute  of,  54. 

Dexter,  :  Endicott  fined 

for  assaulting,  59. 

Dexter,  Thomas:  punished  for 
speaking  disrespectfully  of  the 
government,  39. 

Disfranchisement:  what  crimes 
punished  by,  57. 


408 


INDEX. 


Dissenting  Faiths :  rapid  increase 
of,  248. 

Divorce:  for  what  cause  allowed, 
55. 

Doctors:  punishment  of  quacks, 
124. 

Domestic  and  Social  Life:  Chap.V, 
pp.  94-129;  large  families,  94; 
dwelling-houses,  94;  apparel, 
97 ;  food  and  drink,  103,  tobac 
co,  104;  inns  and  ordinaries, 
105 :  roads  and  travel,  108 ;  pub 
lic  days,  holidays,  etc.,  109; 
amusements,  games,  etc.,  110; 
courtship  and  marriage,  111; 
doctors,  124;  funerals,  124; 
rank,  127. 

Dorchester:  early  settlement,  25 ; 
the  plan  of  local  government, 
273. 

Downing,  :  one  of  com 
mittee  to  transcribe  copy  of 
laws,  47. 

^Dudley,  Joseph:  asks  permission 
for  his  son  to  call  on  Judge 
Sewall's  daughter,  113 ;  he  and 
Richards  sent  as  agents  to 
England,  369;  their  advice  to 
General  Court,  373  ;  additional 
instructions  to,  373;  president 
of  the  provisional  government, 
383 ;  his  insulting  taunts  to  Rev. 
Wise  and  others  upon  their  trial 
before  him,  387 ;  imprisoned, 
391. 

Dudley,  Gov.  Thomas :  his  account 
of  the  Puritan  emigration  from 
England  to  America,  13;  one 
of  committee  to  frame  code  of 
laws,  45 ;  verses  found  in  pock 
et  at  his  death,  184;  at  trial  of 
Ann  Hutchinson,  224,  227. 

Dudley,  Col.  William:  his  father 
asks  permission  for  him  to  call 
on  Judge  Sewall's  daughter 
Judith,  113. 

Dunster,  Henry:  degradation  of, 
237. 

Dunton,  '  John :  praise  of  land 
lord  of  Blue  Anchor  Inn,  107 ; 
visits  Cotton  Mather,  175. 

Dutch:  condition  of  Puritans 
among,  3;  war  with  England, 
356;  peace  declared,  359. 

Dwelling -Houses:  construction, 94 ; 
how  heated  and  lighted,  95; 


oiled  paper  in  windows,  95 ;  the 
kitchen,  95 ;  furniture,  96. 

Eames,  Thomas :  destruction  of 
his  house  by_  Indians,  78;  in 
ventory  of  his  property,  157. 

Ears,  cutting  off:  what  crimes 
punished  by,  56. 

Eaton,  Gov.  Theophilus:  answer 
of  General  Court  to,  307. 

Ecclesiastics:  danger  of  vesting 
unlimited  power  in,  209. 

Education:  first  care  of  frontier 
settlements,  159 ;  early  laws  for 
education  of  children  and  ap 
prentices,  174;  only  orthodox 
teachers  employed,  174 ;  begin 
ning  of  Harvard  College,  174. 
See  Chap.  IX,  Education, Books 
and  Literature. 

Education,  Books  and  Literature : 
Chap.  IX,  pp.  174-192. 

Edwards,  Rev.  Jonathan:  effect 
of  his  sermons  on  his  hearers, 
194. 

Election  Days :  110. 

Elections :  law  against  stuffing  the 
ballot-box,  52;  election  days, 
110. 

Eliot,  Rev.  John:  efforts  to  con 
vert  Indians,  78;  at  trial  of 
Ann  Hutchinson,  224,  266, 
230;  his  ''Christian  Common 
wealth,"  338;  censured  for  its 
seditious  teachings,  339. 

Emancipation:  of  Massachusetts 
from  Puritan  control,  390,  401. 

Emmanuel  College :  colonists  who 
came  from,  196. 

Endicott,  Gov.  John :  leads  col 
ony  of  Puritans  to  America,  15, 
17;  one  of  grantees  of  council 
for  New  England,  17;  his  char 
acter,  21;  one  of  the  commit 
tee  to  transcribe  code  of  laws, 
47 ;  fined  for  assault  on  Dexter, 
59 ;  protests  against  men  wear 
ing  long  hair,  102;  opposes 
Vane,  218;  at  trial  of  Ann 
Hutchinson,  227,  228;  at  trial 
of  Clark,  Crandall  and  Holmes, 
236;  at  trial  of  Wenlock  Chris- 
tison,  239;  releases  the  Quaker 
prisoners,  239;  death,  386;  his 
influence  in  founding  the  com 
monwealth,  394. 


INDEX. 


409 


England:  persecution  of  Puritans' 
in,  2,  5;  English  courts  and 
judges  in  reign  of  Charles  1,7; 
inhuman  punishments  of  Puri 
tans  there,  8 ;  difficulties  in  es 
caping  from,  8;  local  govern 
ment  in,  269;  under  the  reign 
of  the  "Merry  Monarch,"  299, 
357 ;  beginning  of  trouble  be 
tween  England  and  colonists, 
322 ;  their  claims  as  to  their  re 
lation  to,  325 ;  lull  in  efforts  to 
subdue  in  reign  of  Charles  II, 
356 ;  war  with  Dutch  and  degra 
dation  under,  356;  peace  de 
clared  with  Dutch,  359 ;  tyran 
nical  course  of  English  rulers 
toward  American  colonies,  391. 

Evening  at  Home:  on  the  frontier, 
153. 

Excommunicated  Persons :  law  as 
to,  42. 

Extortion:  laws  against,  139,  140. 

Extravagance:  in  building  and 
furnishing  houses  discouraged, 
96;  also  in  apparel,  97. 

Fairbanks,  Jonas,  charged  with 
"great-boots,"  101. 

Fairbanks,  Richard:  appointed 
postmaster,  39. 

Families:  large,  94. 

Familists:  their  doctrines,  240. 

Family  Arms :  use  of,  129. 

Fanaticism :  difficulty  in  denning, 
263. 

Fast-days:  109. 

Fees:  extortionate  charged  under 
Andros,  388. 

Fiat  Money,  none  in  common 
wealth  period,  137. 

Fidelity:  oath  required,  37. 

Finch,  Katherine:  punished  for 
speaking  disrespectfully  of 
churches  and  ministers,  40. 

Fines:  what  crimes  punished  by, 
57;  excessive  under  Andros, 
389. 

Fisher,  Mary :  invades  Massachu 
setts,  237. 

Fishing:  as  an  industry,  133. 

Food  and  Drink:  thanksgiving 
dinners,  103.  See  Intemper 
ance. 

Foreigners:  rights  of,  50;  influx 
into  Massachusetts,  399. 


Forts :  establishment  of,  149. 

Foster,  John:  the  first  Boston 
printer,  179. 

Foster,  William:  requested  to 
leave  colony,  41. 

Fox,  George:  throws  England 
into  a  tumult,  237. 

Freemen:  required  to  take  oath  of 
allegiance,  31;  first  new  free 
men  admitted,  35 ;  resume  pow 
ers  granted  by  charter,  36; 
right  of  suffrage  restricted  to, 
36;  none  but  church  members 
admitted,  36,  199. 

Frontier  Life :  Chap.  VII,  pp.  145- 
159;  permission  of  General 
Court  required  to  establish  set 
tlements,  146;  establishing 
boundaries,  147 ;  purchase  of 
Indian  title,  147;  allotment  of 
lands,  147;  effect  of  proximity 
to  the  Indians,  148,  151 ;  indus 
tries  in,  153;  "an  evening  at 
home"  on  the  frontier,  153; 
how  settlers  relieved  monotony 
of  work,  155 ;  prosperity  of 
frontier  settlements  prior  to 
King  Philip's  war,  156. 

Fugitive  Slave  Law:  first  in 
America,  311. 

Fugitives  from  Justice  and  Serv 
ice:  provisions  of  articles  of 
confederation  as  to,  311. 

Funerals:  how  conducted,  124; 
early  burying  grounds,  125; 
monuments  and  tombstones, 
126;  giving  presents  at,  126; 
laws  to  restrain  extravagance 
of,  127. 

Gainsborough:  congregation  of 
Puritans  at,  3. 

Garrison  Houses :  establishment 
of,  149. 

Garrison,  "William  Lloyd:  perse 
cution  of,  264 

General  Court:  meetings  of,  29; 
powers  assumed  by  it,  38 ;  mat 
ters  first  attended  to,  39;  how 
it  enforced  respect  for  its  au 
thority,  39 ;  exercise  of  author 
ity  over  lands,  54 ;  holds  a  ses 
sion  at  Newtown,  249;  last 
meeting,  383. 

Gibbs,  Widow:  courtship  and  mar 
riage  of  by  Judge  Sewall,  120. 


410 


INDEX. 


Gooldn,  Daniel:  hig  "Historical 
Collections  of  the  Indians  in 
New  England,"  180;  "Histori 
cal  Account  of  the  Doings  and 
Sufferings  of  the  Christian  In 
dians  in  New  England,"  180; 
"History  of  New  England," 
181 ;  banishment  from  Virginia, 
261. 

Gorges,  Ferdinando :  complaints 
of  him  and  Mason,  359;  the 
king  writes  concerning,  361 ; 
English  judges  decide  in  favor 
of  claims  of  his  heirs  to  Prov 
ince  of  Maine,  363. 

Gorton,  Samuel :  his  contentious 
disposition,  234 ;  his  experience 
in  Plymouth,  Rhode  Island  and 
Providence,  262 ;  his  trial,  292; 
complaints  of  him  and  others 
in  England,  324,  failure  of 
complaints  there,  329. 

Governor:  his  powers  under  the 
charter,  34. 

Government:  establishing  seat  of, 
34 ;  progress  in  making  during 
first  ten  years,  42.  See  Chap. 
XI,  Making  a  Government. 

Grant,  Gen.  Ulysses :  banishment 
of  Jews  from  his  department, 
23. 

Great  Seal:     See  Seal. 

Grey  Hound  Inn:  at  Roxbury, 
107. 

Groton:  in  King  Philip's  war, 
92. 

Hadley:  in  King  Philip's  war, 
92. 

Hampton:  Quakers  at,  244. 

Harlakenden,  Rev. :  on  trial  of 
Ann  Hutchinson,  226. 

Harvard  College:  students  give 
offense  by  wearing  long  hair, 
102;  beginning,  175. 

HatUeld:  in  King  Philip's  war, 
92. 

Hauthorne,  "Will :  one  of  commit 
tee  to  draft  and  copy  code  of 
laws,  46. 

Haynes,  Gov.  John :  one  of  com 
mittee  to  draft  code  of  laws,  45 ; 
confers  concerning  New  Eng 
land  confederation,  305,  306; 
answer  of  General  Court  to, 
307. 


Heresy:  defined  and  punished, 
201. 

Hewes,  William :  fined  for  derid 
ing  the  singing  and  preaching 
in  church,  60. 

Higginson,  Francis:  his  "New 
England's  Plantation,"  181. 

High  Commission  of  England :  its 
tyranny,  7. 

Hingham:  meeting-house  at,  165; 
controversy  over  train-band, 
290. 

Holidays:  English  holidays  for 
bidden,  109. 

Holland:  emigration  of  Puritans 
to  from  England,  3  ;  settlement 
at  Amsterdam  and  Leyden,  3 ; 
condition  there,  3. 

Holmes,  Rev.  Obadiah:  punish 
ment  of,  235. 

Hooker,  Rev.  Thomas :  his  writ 
ings,  189;  quoted  as  authority 
in  England,  192 ;  had  achieved 
distinction  there,  196;  fugitive 
from  there,  197 ;  affection  of 
his  congregation  and  venera 
tion  of  people  for  him,  198;  his 
influence  in  Connecticut,  207; 
Winthrop's  letter  to,  284 ;  con 
fers  as  to  New  England  confed 
eration,  291 ;  his  death,  386. 

Hopkins:  answer  of  General  Court 
to, 307. 

Hopper,  Isaac  T. :  persecution  of 
by  Quakers  for  his  abolition 
views,  267. 

Horton,  Elizabeth :  the  Quaker  at 
Cambridge,  245. 

House-raisings:  on  the  frontier, 
156. 

Howe,  Beulah :  her  marriage  por 
tion,  122. 

Howe,  Col.  Thomas:  his  bond  as 
inn-keepeV  at  Marlborough,  106. 

Howe,  Col.  Samuel :  recommended 
for  inn-keeper  at  Sudbury,  107. 

Howes:  of  Marlborough,  400. 

Hull,  John:  his  daughter's  mar 
riage  portion,  120;  master  of 
the  mint,  137. 

Humphreys,  Robert :  employed  to 
defend  quo  warranto  proceed 
ings,  378. 

Hunting  Parties :  on  the  frontier. 
156. 


INDEX. 


411 


Husband  and  wife :  husband's  au 
thority  over  wife,  55 ;  attempt 
of  General  Court  to  make  a  hus 
band  and  wife  live  together, 
123.  See  Marriage. 
"Hutchinson,  Ann :  her  arrival  in 
America,  215 ;  teachings  of  her 
self  and  of  her  disciples,  215; 
Wheelright  and  Vane  become 
converts,  216 ;  John  Cotton  also 
much  impressed,  216 ;  effect  of 
her  teachings,  217;  proceedings 
at  her  trial,  224;  her  banish 
ment,  231 ;  her  subsequent  fate, 
232. 

Hutchinson,  Francis :  banished  for 
religious  opinions,  41. 

Hymn-books:  those  in  early  use, 
J70. 

Idleness:  laws  to  discourage,  130, 
131. 

Independence:  beginning  of  colo 
nists'  idea  of  an  independent 
government,  315;  when  idea 
first  took  definite  shape,  318; 
what  grounds  for  existed  in 
reign  of  Charles  II,  351 ;  oppo 
sition  to  English  claim  of  right 
of  taxation,  356,  365;  on  what 
grounds  colonists  based  their 
claims,  362.  See  The  Struggle 
for  Independence,  Chaps.  XV, 
XVI. 

Indiana:  persecution  of  abolition 
ists  in  by  the  Quakers,  265. 

Indians:  plague  among,  77;  had 
no  semblance  of  organized  gov 
ernment,  77 ;  their  title  to  land 
recognized,  77,  147;  appetite 
for  intoxicating  liquor,  78;  ef 
forts  to  civilize  and  convert,  78 ; 
troubles  and  war  with  Pequots, 
79 ;  respective  claims  of  Indians 
and  colonists,  82;  appearance 
of  King  Philip,  his  character 
and  ability,  84;  beginning  and 
progress  of  King  Philip's  war, 
87 ;  effects  of  the  war,  88 ;  In 
dian  currency,  135 ;  effect  of 
proximity  to  upon  frontier  life, 
148,  152;  restrained  from  pro 
faning  the  Lord's  Day,  164.  See 
Chap.  Ill,  The  Puritans  and 
the  Indians. 


Industrial  and  Commercial  Life : 
Chap.  VI,  pp.  130-144;  laws 
against  idleness,  130;  agricul 
ture,  131;  fishing,  133;  me 
chanical  trades,  133;  manufac 
tures,  133 ;  commerce  with  other 
colonies  and  countries,  134; 
currency,  134 ;  wages  and  prices, 
138. 

Inns  and  Ordinaries :  as  news  cen 
ters,  105 ;  governmental  super 
vision  over,  105 ;  celebrated  col 
onial  inns,  107;  inn-keepers  re 
quired  to  clear  their  houses  of 
all  persons  able  to  go  to  church 
during  the  services,  164 ;  toward 
close  of  commonwealth,  386. 

Intemperance:  increase  in  and 
laws  against,  104. 

Iron:  manufacture  of,  133. 

Jacpb,Old:  the  praying  Indian, 78. 

James  I :  death,  5. 

James  II :  judges  in  reign  of,  7 ; 
his  accession,  380. 

Jefferson,  Thomas :  tribute  to  New 
England  town  system,  280. 

Jeffreys,  Judge:  in  reign  of 
James  II,  8. 

Jennison,  William:  at  trial  of 
Ann  Hutchinson,  231. 

Johnson,  Edward :  his  "  Wonder- 
Working  Providence,"  180. 

Josselyn,  John:  his  "New  Eng 
land  Rarities  "  and  "  Two  Voy 
ages,"  181. 

Judges,  of  Commonwealth:  lack 
of  legal  learning,  70;  in  the 
witchcraft  trials,  71 ;  conse 
quences  of,  74;  subserviency 
under  Andros,  389.  See  Chap. 
Ill,  Puritan  Laws,  Lawyers  and 
Courts. 

Judges,  of  England:  in  reign  of 
Charles  I,  7. 

Judicial  Powers:  see  Courts, 
Judges,  Puritan  Laws,  etc. 

Juries :  right  of  trial  by  secured 
by  Body  of  Liberties,  50 ;  pro 
vision  enabling  them  to  consult 
the  ministers,  65. 

Justices  of  the  Peace:  how  ap 
pointed,  64. 

Juvenile  Literature :  none  in  com 
monwealth  period,  186. 


412 


INDEX. 


•Tynkes,  Ester:  presented  for  wear 
ing  silver  lace,  60. 

Keayne,  Capt.  Robert:  his  trial 
for  extortion,  140 ;  his  law-suit 
with  Mrs.  Sherman,  288. 

Kentland,  Nathaniel:  he  and 
others  fined  for  drinking  Wm. 
Craft's  "sider,"  etc.,  60. 

Kinible,  Capt. :  punished  for  kiss 
ing  his  wife  on  Sunday,  165. 

Kirk,  Col.:  intended  as  first  gov 
ernor  instead  of  Andros,  387. 

Kitchen*:  a  prominent  feature  in 
dwelling-houses,  95 ;  in  the 
frontier  houses,  153. 

Knopp,  Nicholas :  fined  for  quack 
ery,  124. 

Lancaster:  in  King  Philip's  war, 
92. 

Lands:  tenure  of,  53  ;  Indian  title 
recognized,  53;  authority  of 
General  Court  over,  54 ;  towns 
authorized  to  dispose  of,  54; 
how  allotted,  147;  land  titles 
under  Andros,  389. 

Laud,  Archbishop:  his  persecu 
tion  of  the  Puritans,  5 ;  his 
character,  6 ;  head  of  Commis 
sioners  for  Plantations,  305; 
his  execution,  257. 

Law  -  Books  :  in  commonwealth 
period,  66;  SewalPs,  71. 

Laws:  inconveniences  resulting 
from  absence  of  code  of,  43,  44 ; 
effort  to  establish  a  code,  44; 
adoption  of  Body  of  Liberties, 
47 ;  study  of  essential  to  under 
standing  history  of  common 
wealth,  48 ;  explanation  of  de 
lay  in  adopting,  48;  revisions 
of  1649, 1660  and  1672, 52 ;  Whit- 
more's  edition  of  Colonial  Laws, 
52  (note)  ;  various  provisions  of, 
52 ;  penalties  for  violation,  56 ; 
enforced  rigidly  and  impartial 
ly,  58 ;  examples  of  early  laws 
and  punishments,  59;  exten 
sive  scope  of  legislation,  59; 
great  number  of  local  officers 
required  to  execute,  60;  how 
these  old  laws  should  be  judged, 
61 ;  compared  with  early  laws 
of  England  and  of  other  Ameri 
can  colonies,  62 ;  law-books,  66 ; 


enacted  in  name  of  General 
Court  and  "  by  authority  there 
of,"  354.  See  Chap.  Ill,  Puri 
tan  Laws,  etc.,  Body  of  Liber 
ties,  Lawyers. 

Lawyers:  in  commonwealth  peri 
od,  66 ;  professional  ignored,  67  ; 
legal  documents  drawn  by  jus 
tices  and  ministers,  68 ;  no  fees 
allowed,  68;  prejudice  against, 
68;  ineligible  to  seat  in  Gen 
eral  Court,  69;  patrons  sub 
stitutes  for,  69 ;  Lechford's  at 
tempt  to  practice,  69;  no  devel 
opment  of  law  as  a  science,  74; 
evil  results  of  want  of  learned 
lawyers  and  judges,  74;  ab 
sence  of  influence  of  lawyers  in 
restraining  the  Theocracy,  74 ; 
conservative  tendency  of  the 
legal  profession,  75.  See  Chap. 
Ill,  Puritan  Laws,  etc. 

Laying  the  Foundations  of  a 
Greater  Republic — The  LTnited 
Colonies  of  New  England, Chap. 
XIV,  pp.  301-314.  See  United 
Colonies,  etc. 

Lechford,  Thomas:  attempt  to 
practice  law,  69. 

Legal  Processes :  ran  in  name  of 
commonwealth,  354. 

Legislative  Powers :  exercise  of 
by  General  Court,  38. 

Leverett,  Gov.  John :  ominous  tid 
ings  sent  by  him  from  England, 
337  ;  his  treatment  of  Randolph 
when  latter  brought  a  letter 
from  the  king,  361. 

Leverett,  Rev.  Thomas:  at  trial  of 
Ann  Hutchinson,  227,  228. 

Leyden  Congregation :  emigration 
to  Plymouth,  4. 

Libel  and  Slander:  punishment 
of,  51. 

Liberties:  see  Body  of  Liberties. 

Libraries:  private,  175:  Cotton 
Mather's,  175;  John  Win- 
throp's,  176;  Elder  Brewster's, 
176;  Judge  Sewall's  books,  177. 

Lite hfi e I d,  Ct. :  introduction  of 
stoves  in  meeting-house,  166. 

Literature,  in  commonwealth  pe 
riod:  publications  of  that  pe 
riod,  179 ;  poetry,  181 ;  juvenile 
literature,  186;  almanacs,  137; 
character  of  religious  books, 


INDEX. 


4*3 


188;  early  religious  and  law 
books  compared,  191.  See  Chap. 
VIII,  Education,  Books  and 
Literature. 

Local  Government :  idea  of  promi 
nent  in  American  government, 
269,  272;  existence  in  Eng 
land  and  in  Germanic  tribes, 
269 ;  development  in  New  Eng 
land,  269,  272;  the  Dorchester 
plan,  273;  the  Charlestown 
plan,  273;  adhered  to  in  arti 
cles  of  New  England  confedera 
tion,  311.  See  Chap.  XII,  Lay 
ing  the  Foundations,  etc., 
Towns. 

London:  plague  in,  356 ;  great  fire, 
356;  its  charter  declared  for 
feited,  377. 

Long  Hair:  protests  and  laws 
against,  102. 

Long  Parliament :  attitude  of  com 
monwealth  to,  324;  General 
Court's  remonstrance  to,  328; 
threatened  demand  by  for  sur 
render  of  charter,  330;  protests 
of  General  Court  to,  330. 

Lothrop:  death  at  Bloody  Brook, 
88. 

Love,  John :  given  order  for  books 
by  Judge  Sewall,  177. 

Low  Countries :  see  Holland. 

Ludloio,  Roger:  John  Stone  pun 
ished  for  abusing  him,  40. 

Lynn:  early  settlement,  25;  ex 
tracts  from  early  court  records 
of,  59;  iron  works  established 
there,  133. 

Mail  System :  beginning,  39. 

Maine:  why  left  out  of  New  Eng 
land  confederation,  307;  Gen 
eral  Court  overturns  courts  es 
tablished  there  by  the  royal 
commissioners,  350;  English 
judges  decide  in  favor  of  claims 
of  Gorges's  heirs,  363;  pur 
chase  of  by  Massachusetts,  364. 

Makepeace,  Thomas:  informed 
that  General  Court  was  weary 
of  his  "novile  disposition,"  41. 

Making  a  Government:  Chap  II, 
pp.  27-47  ;  founded  on  charter, 
27 ;  proprietary  rights  granted 
by  charter,  28 ;  governmental 
powers,  29 ;  implied  powers,  32 ; 


sovereign  control  not  relin 
quished,  32 ;  powers  claimed  by 
colonists,  33 ;  establishing  a  seat 
of  government,  34;  admission 
of  new  freemen,  35 ;  restoration 
of  suffrage  to  freemen,  36 ;  oaths 
of  fidelity  and  allegiance,  36 ; 
exercise  of  legislative  power, 
38 ;  establishment  of  courts,  38 ; 
exercise  of  taxing  power,  38 ; 
military  measures ,  38 ;  other 
steps  taken  to  establish  a  gov 
ernment,  39 ;  enforcing  respect 
for  government,  39;  surveil 
lance  over  strangers,41 ;  banish 
ment  for  immoral  conduct  and 
heretical  opinions,  41 ;  progress 
made  in  first  ten  years  in  es 
tablishing,  42;  evils  resulting 
from  absence  of  a  code  of  laws, 
43 ;  efforts  to  establish  a  code, 
44 ;  Body  of  Liberties  adopted, 
47.  See  Charter. 

Maiden:  church  at  fined,  204. 

Manners:  change  in  those  of  peo 
ple  of  commonwealth,  386. 

Manufactures:  progress  of,  13S. 

Marblehead:  women  of  in  King; 
Philip's  war,  90. 

Marietta  (Ohio) :  settled  by  de 
scendants  of  the  Puritans,  159; 
establishment  of  schools, 
churches  and  laws  there,  397. 

Marlborough:  in  King  Philip's 
war,  92,  151;  changes  in,  318, 
400,  401. 

Marriage:  laws  as  to,  111;  mar 
riage  etiquette,  113;  marriage 
portions  and  bridal  outfits,  120 ; 
attempt  of  General  Court  to 
compel  husband  and  wife  to 
stick  to  each  other,  123 ;  suits 
for  breach  of  promise,  124.  See 
Courtship,  Divorce,  Husband 
and  Wife. 

Martin,  Ambros:  punished  for 
speaking  disrespectfully  of  the 
churches  and  ministers,  40. 

Maryland:  laws  against  witch 
craft,  63;  trade  of  Massachu 
setts  with,  134;  persecution  of 
Quakers  in,  258 ;  religious  per 
secution  in,  259. 

Mason,  Capt.  John:  commands 
Connecticut  troops  in  Pequot 


4H 


INDEX. 


war,  80;  his  "History  of  the 
Pequot  War,"  180. 

Mason,  Robert:  complaints  of 
him  and  Gorges,  359;  the  king 
writes  concerning,  361 ;  En 
glish  judges  decide  against  his 
claim  to  New  Hampshire,  363. 

Massachusetts:  character  of  first 
settlers,  19 ;  negotiations  for  es 
tablishing  New  England  con 
federation,  304,  306;  admission 
into,  307;  towns  and  popula 
tion  at  that  time,  313;  changes 
in  between  beginning  and  end 
of  commonwealth,  383;  con 
tribution  to  expenses  of  revolu 
tionary  war,  397;  changes  in 
since  end  of  commonwealth, 
383,  398;  emancipation  of  still 
going  on,  401. 

Massachusetts  Company :  charter 
incorporating,  16. 

Massasoit,  Chief:  father  of  King 
Philip  and  friend  of  the  colo 
nists,  86. 

Mather,  Rev.  Cotton :  his  library, 
175;  his"Magnalia,"  175;  eulo 
gizes  Anne  Bradstreet's  Poems, 
182;  effect  of  his  sermons  on 
Betty  Sewall,  195. 

Mather,  Rev.  Increase:  a  prolific 
writer,  179,  188;  had  achieved 
distinction  in  England,  196; 
influence  over  the  Theocracy, 
208 ;  foremost  in  opposition  to 
Andros,  254. 

Maverick,  Samuel:  settlement  on 
Noddles'  Island,  25 ;  petition  of 
him  and  others  to  the  General 
Court,  234 ;  one  of  the  commis 
sioners  sent  by  Charles  II,  342. 

May-Days:  celebration  of  prohib 
ited,  109. 

Mayflower:  compact  signed  in 
cabin  of,  270. 

Mechanical  Trades:  in  early  pe 
riod,  133 ;  few  artisans  in  fron 
tier  settlements,  152. 

Medfield:  in  King  Philip's  war, 
92. 

Meeting-Houses:  construction,  165 ; 
how  heated,  165;  interior  ar 
rangement,  166.  See  Churches ; 
Ministers. 

Military  Establishment :  early 
military  measures,  38;  promi 


nent  feature  in  frontier  life, 
148;  organization  of  militia, 
148;  forts  and  garrison-houses, 
149 ;  military  watches  and  sen 
tinels,  150;  training  fields  and 
muster-days,  150. 

Militia:  See  Military  Establish 
ment. 

Mills:  early  introduction,  133. 

Ministers:  enforcing  respect  for, 
40 ;  legal  documents  drawn  by, 
68;  visiting,  167;  learning  and 
industry,  188,  192,  196;  great 
influence  of  their  books  and 
sermons,  192;  fearless  disposi 
tion,  197 ;  religious  views  in  ac 
cord  with  those  of  first  settlers, 
197 ;  great  affection  between 
them  and  the  members  of 
their  congregations,  197  ;  first 
care  of  colonists  to  provide 
for,  198;  none  but  orthodox 
called,  204;  power  to  exclude 
from  church  membership,  207 ; 
great  influence  of,  207 ;  power 
in  General  Court  and  else 
where,  208 ;  recognition  of  their 
power  by  civil  authorities,  209 ; 
charge  that  they  encouraged 
belief  in  witchcraft,  253 ;  stead 
fast  champions  of  people  against 
tyranny  of  English  rulers,  254 ; 
define  nature  of  colonists'  alle 
giance  to  England,  326;  argu 
ments  against  relinquishing  the 
charter,  376.  See  Chap.  VIII, 
The  Puritan  Sabbath ;  Churches ; 
Meeting-houses ;  Sabbath ;  The 
ocracy. 

Mint:  establishment,  136. 

Moderator:  presiding  officer  of 
both  church  and  town  meetings, 
272;  duties  of  moderator  of 
town  meetings,  276. 

Monck,  George:  landlord  of  the 
Blue  Anchor  Inn,  107. 

Money:  See  Currency. 

Monopolies:  forbidden,  51. 

Moodey,  Rev. :  persecution  of  by 
Gov.  Cranfielcl,  390. 

Morton,  Thomas :  a  lawyer,  68. 

Mothers:  Puritan,  187. 

Music:  instrumental  in  churches, 
170. 

Muster  Days:  in  early  period,  150,, 
155. 


INDEX. 


415 


Mystic:  settlement,  26. 

Narragansetts :  side  with  colonists 
in  Pequot  war,  80;  troubles 
with,  82;  annihilated  in  King 
Philip's  war,  93. 

Navigation  Acts:  of  1651,  a  dead 
letter  in  Massachusetts  in  Crom 
well's  time,  332;  of  1660  and 
1663,  339;  ignored  by  Massa 
chusetts  commonwealth,  354; 
act  of  1674,  359. 

Neglectors  of  Families:  punish 
ment,  130. 

Newbury :  conduct  of  Quakers  at, 
244. 

New  England:  English  origin  of 
first  settlers,  19;  idea  of  local 
government  in,  269;  town  sys 
tem  in,  269 ;  confederation,  301 ; 

New  England  Primer:  great  cir 
culation  and  influence,  186. 

New  Hampshire:  province  of  es 
tablished,  363.  m 

New  Haven:  admission  into  New 
England  Confederation,  307; 
towns  and  population  at  that 
time,  313 ;  absorbed  in  Connec 
ticut,  314. 

Neivhouse,  Thomas:  the  Quaker 
at  Boston,  245. 

Neivtown:  establishing  Harvard 
College  there,  175;  General 
Court  held  a  session  there,  218 ; 
synod  there,  246. 

New  York:  trade  with,  134;  laws 
against  Catholics,  259 ;  troubles 
between  Dutch  governor  of, 
and  Connecticut,  306. 

Night-watchmen:  of  towns,  duties, 
275. 

Noddles1  Island:  settlement  of 
Samuel  Maverick  at,  25. 

Noon-houses:  connected  with 
churches,  171. 

Norman,  Samuel:  punished  for 
speaking  disrespectfully  of  the 
ministers,  40. 

Northampton:  women  of  ar 
raigned  for  wicked  apparel,  101. 

NortMeld:  in  King  Philip's  war,  92. 

Norton,  Rev.  John :  Fiske's  esti 
mate  of,  21 ;  expenses  of  funeral 
of  his  widow,  126;  eulogizes 
Anne  Bradstreet's  poems,  182; 
great  worker  and  prolific  writer, 


188;  character  of  his  writings, 
189;  his  "Orthodox  Evangel 
ist,"  190;  effect  of  his  sermons 
on  Betty  Sewall,  195;  had 
achieved  distinction  in  Eng 
land,  196 ;  was  a  fugitive  from 
there,  197 ;  influence  in  the 
commonwealth,  207;  he  and 
Bradstreet  sent  as  agents  to 
England,  340;  answer  of 
Charles  II,  returned  by  them, 
340;  made  a  scape-goat  of  by 
the  people,  341;  death,  342, 
386. 

Noyes,  Joseph :  letter  concerning 
inns  at  Sudbury,  107. 

Ny antics:  troubles  with,  82. 

Oklahoma  Territory :  local  self- 
government  in,  269. 

" Old  Jacob:"  one  of  the  "Pray 
ing  Indians,"  78. 

Old  Plymouth  Road,  108. 

Osborn,  Charles:  persecution  of 
by  Indiana  Quakers  for  his  ab 
olition  views,  266. 

Palmer,  Edward:  put  in  stocks 
built  by  him  for  his  extortion 
in  price  charged,  140. 

Palmer,  George:  punished  for 
committing  folly  with  Margery 
Rugg,  58. 

Parents  and  Children:  laws  en 
forcing  obedience  of  children, 
55;  parents  required  to  allow 
children  timely  and  convenient 
marriage,  112;  and  not  to  ex 
ercise  unnatural  severity,  112; 
also  to  put  them  to  work,  131 ; 
and  to  educate  them,  174;  and 
bring  them  up  in  a  Godly  way, 
205. 

Parliamentary  Commissioners : 
send  a  communication  to  the 
General  Court,  324;  letter  of 
General  Court  to,  328. 

Passing  of  the  Puritans — Looking 
Backward  and  also  Looking 
Forward,  Chap.  XVIII,  DD. 
393-402. 

Patrons:  as  substitutes  for  law 
yers,  69. 

Penalties:  for  various  crimes,  56. 

Pennsylvania:  laws  against  witch 
craft,  63. 


4i  6 


INDEX. 


Pequots:  troubles  and  war  with, 
79;  extermination,  80. 

Peter,  Rev.  Hugh:  one  of  com 
mittee  to  draft  code  of  laws,  45, 
46 ;  at  trial  of  Ann  Hutchinson, 
224,  226;  returns  to  England, 
257;  heroism  when  executed, 
257. 

Philip,  King :  as  a  leader,  84 ;  in 
justice  to  him  of  Massachusetts 
historians,  84 ;  master  spirit  of 
the  great  Indian  coalition,  86 ; 
his  efforts  to  unite  the  Indians, 
86;  King  Philip's  war  begun, 
87 ;  its  sanguinary  character,  88 ; 
inhuman  treatment  by  colonists 
of  his  little  son,  89 ;  his  death 
and  barbarous  mutilation  of  his 
body,  89,  91 ;  results  of  the  war, 
92 ;  life  on  frontier  settlements 
during  the  war,  156;  their  re 
cuperation  afterwards,  158. 

Phillips,  Rev. :  chosen  one  of  the 
first  ministers,  34 ;  one  of  com 
mittee  to  draft  code  of  laws,  46. 

Phipps,  Gov.  William:  his  moth 
er's  large  family,  94. 

Pinion,  Nicholas:  fined  for  swear 
ing,  60. 

Plymouth:  emigration  of  Ley  den 
congregation  to,  4 ;  the  colony, 
4;  in  King  Philip's  war,  92; 
treatment  of  Gorton  in,  262; 
admission  into  New  England 
confederation,  307;  towns  and 
population  at  that  time,  314. 

'Poets:  of  commonwealth  period, 
181. 

Population,  of  commonwealth :  in 
crease  during  Cromwell's  time, 
332 ;  between  beginning  and  end 
of  commonwealth,  383 ;  changes 
in  character,  386,  399. 

Porter,  John :  expelled  from  Vir 
ginia  house  of  representatives 
because  "too  loving"  to  the 
Quakers,  260. 

Portugal:  trade  of  commonwealth 
with,  134. 

Potteries:    establishment  of,  133. 

Praying  Indians,  The :  78. 

Prices:  laws  regulating,  138;  Cot 
ton's  "rules  for  trading,"  142; 
failure  to  enforce  laws  regulat 
ing,  143. 


Privy  Council :  control  of  colonies 
vested  in,  322;  demands  pro 
duction  of  charter,  322. 

Proprietary  Rights:  granted  by 
charter,  28. 

Providence:  treatment  of  Gorton 
in,  262. 

Provisional  Government :  estab 
lished  after  revocation  of  char 
ter,  383. 

Public  Days:  in  commonwealth, 
110. 

Punishments:  inhuman  prohibited 
by  Body  of  Liberties,  50. 

Puritans:  persecution  of  in  Eng 
land,  1,  5;  emigration  to  Hol 
land,  2;  condition  there,  3; 
emigration  from  Holland  to 
America,  4;  emigration  from 
England  to  America,  12;  their 
motives  for  emigrating,  12 ;  ad 
dress  issued  before  going,  17 ; 
designs  as  to  setting  up  an  inde 
pendent  government,  18 ;  from 
what  parts  of  England  they 
came,  19;  their  character,  19; 
their  sufferings  during  the  first 
winter,  26;  change  in  historic 
style  in  writing  about  them, 
393;  their  belief  in  morality, 
394 ;  and  in  education,  395 ; 
intense  lovers  of  liberty,  395 ; 
economical  in  public  and  pri 
vate  expenditures,  396;  but 
not  parsimonious  in  defense  of 
country,  396;  have  impressed 
their  characteristics  on  every 
community  established  bythem, 
397 ;  settlement  by  their  de 
scendants  of  Marietta,  Ohio, 
397 ;  giving  place  to  foreigners 
in  New  England,  399;  great 
changes  in  New  England  in 
character  of  population,  398; 
where  descendants  of  the  New 
England  Puritans  have  gone, 
400 ;  change  from  religious  be 
liefs  of  the  early  Puritans  in 
New  England,  400.  See  Chap. 

III,  Puritan  Laws,  etc. ;  Chap. 

IV,  The  Puritans  and  the  In 
dians  ;  Chap.  VIII,  The  Puritan 
Sabbath;    Chap.    XVIII,    The 
Passing  of  the  Puritans,  etc. 

Puritans  and  the  Indians,  The: 
Chap.  IV,  pp.  77-93. 


INDEX. 


4*7 


Puritan      Laws,     Lawyers      and 

Courts :  Chap.  Ill,  pp.  48-76. 
Puritan     Sabbath,     The:     Chap. 

VIII,  pp.  160-173. 
Putnam,  Gen.  Rufus :  settlement 

by  of  Marietta,  Ohio,  159. 
Pynchon,  William:  conference  as 

to  New  England  confederation. 

305. 

Quacks:  punishment  of ,  124. 

Quakers:  laws  against,  200,  201, 
205;  invade  Massachusetts,  237; 
fined,  imprisoned  and  banished, 
237 ;  four  returned  and  were 
hanged,  238 ;  danger  of  uprising 
of  people  against  further  hang 
ings,  239;  the  message  in  their 
behalf  from  the  king  of  England, 
239 ;  their  final  triumph ,  239 ;  the 
old-time  historical  excuse  for 
hanging  them,  241 ;  no  authority 
in  charter  for  their  banishment, 
242;  characteristics  of  early 
Quakers,  243 ;  their  insulting 
conduct  and  indecent  behavior, 
244 ;  majority  of  people  opposed 
to  their  persecution,  252 ;  perse 
cution  of  in  Maryland,  259; 
and  in  Virginia,  259;  Quaker 
persecution  of  Catholics  in 
Rhode  Island,  265;  and  of  Ab 
olitionists  in  Indiana,  265;  re 
ception  by  Quakers  of  Henry 
Clay  in  Richmond,  Indiana, 
267 ;  instructions  of  Charles  II 
to  colonists  as  to,  341. 

Quarter  Courts :  establishment, 
64 ;  jurisdiction,  65. 

Quo  Warranto  Proceedings:  to 
annul  the  charter,  first  begun, 
323;  second  proceedings,  375; 
final  judgment  in,  380;  ques 
tion  as  to  its  legality,  381. 

Randolph,  Edward :  his  efforts  to 
destroy  the  commonwealth, 
359;  sent  by  the  king  with  a 
letter,  361 ;  how  received  by 
Governor  Leverett,  361 ;  busies 
himself  in  fomenting  dissen 
sions  and  factions,  362;  comes 
with  commission  as  customs  col 
lector,  367;  his  treatment  by 
Massachusetts  authorities,  367 ; 
27— PUR.  REP. 


again  comes  with  comrnip?ion 
as  collector,  etc.,  368;  follows 
Dudley  and  Richards  to  Eng 
land,  369;  files  articles  of  high 
crimes  and  misdemeanors 
against  the  governor  and  com 
pany,  374;  serves  writ  of  quo 
icarranto,  375 ;  continues  to  cre 
ate  dissensions,  378;  after  for 
feiture  of  charter  appears  again 
with  commission  for  organizing 
a  provisional  government,  383  ; 
one  of  the  council  of  Governor 
Andros,  387 ;  pronounces  land- 
titles  of  colonists  worthless,  and 
threatens  ejectments  by  cart 
load,  389;  imprisoned,  391. 

Rank:  early  distinctions  in,  127; 
exemption  of  "gentlemen"  from 
whipping,  128;  titles,  128;  fam 
ily  arms,  129;  in  "dignifying" 
the  meeting-house,  167. 

Rawson,  Edward :  signs  order  of 
General  Court  to  close  Baptist 
church,  204. 

Refugees:  from  other  countries, 
provisions  as  to  in  Body  of  Lib 
erties,  50. 

Registry  Laws :  early,  39. 

Religion  of  the  Puritans :  its  som 
ber  character,  193. 

Religious  Persecutions:  in  17th 
century,  258. 

Religious  Sects :  great  number  in 
early  period  of  commonwealth, 
246. 

Religious  Services:  laws  punish 
ing  disturbance,  204 ;  laws  re 
quiring  attendance  upon,  205. 

Religions  Toleration:  absence  of 
in  17th  century,  258;  in  Ameri 
can  colonies,  258 ;  in  Virginia, 
259;  to  what  causes  existing 
toleration  in  United  States  is 
owing,  263. 

Republic:  planting  the  seed — de 
velopment  of  the  town  system, 
269 ;  how  the  republic  grew — 
escape  from  democracy,  282; 
not  at  first  contemplated,  282; 
struggle  of  freemen  against  ex 
ercise  by  rulers  of  arbitrary 
power,  283 ;  opposition  of  free 
men  to  usurpations  of  the  as 
sistants,  284;  freemen  succeed 


418 


INDEX. 


in  having  deputies  to  represent 
them,  285;  straggle  to  obtain 
Body  of  Liberties,  286 ;  opposi 
tion  to  standing  council,  286; 
opposition  to  electing  Winthrop 
governor  for  life,  287 ;  clashing 
between  the  deputies  and  as 
sistants,  287  ;  the  dispute  about 
a  stray  pig  and  its  consequences, 
288 ;  establishment  of  deputies 
and  assistants  as  separate  leg 
islative  bodies,  289 ;  opposition 
of  deputies  to  claims  of  clergy, 
293 ;  growth  of  retarded  by  re 
strictions  upon  admission  to 
privileges  of  freemen,  297 ;  be 
fore  the  close  of  the  common 
wealth  the  government  essen 
tially  republican,  298;  circum 
stances  favored  dissemination 
of  republican  ideas,  299 ;  laying 
the  foundation  of  a  greater  re 
public — the  United  Colonies  of 
New  England,  301 ;  the  strug 
gle  for  independence — genesis 
of  a  still  greater  republic,  315; 
the  Andros  sequel,  383 ;  contin 
ued  growth  of  republic  during 
commonwealth  period,  392.  See 
Chap  XII,  Planting  the  Seed  of 
a  Republic,  etc. ;  Chap.  XIII, 
How  the  Republic  Grew,  etc. ; 
Chap.  XIV,  Laying  the  Foun 
dations  for  a  Greater  Republic, 
etc.;  Chaps.  XV  and  XVI, 
The  Struggle  for  Independence, 
etc. ;  Chap.  XVII,  The  Androa 
Sequel. 

Revenue  Lawrs :  direct  taxes,  53 ; 
duties,  53;  license  fees,  53;  in 
come  taxes,  53. 

Revocation  of  Charter :  see  Chaps. 
XV  and  XVI,  The  Straggle  for 
Independence,  etc. 

PJiode  Island:  treatment  of  Gor 
ton  in,  262;  persecution  of 
Catholics  in,  265  ;  why  left  out 
of  New  England  confederation, 
307;  subsequently  refused  ad 
mission,  308. 

Rices:  of  Marlborough,  400. 

Richards,  John :  he  and  Dudley 
sent  as  agents  to  England,  369; 
their  advice  to  General  Court, 
373;  additional  instructions  to, 
373. 


Richardson,  Amos:  a  patron,  69. 

Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Theocracy, 
Chaps.  X  and  XI,  pp.  193-268. 
See  Ministers,  Theocracy. 

Roads  and  Travel:  in  common 
wealth  period,  108 ;  old  colo 
nial  roads,  108 ;  modes  of  trav 
el,  108. 

Robinson,  Rev.  John :  of  the  Ley- 
den  congregation,  4;  parting 
between  him  and  his  congrega 
tion,  198. 

Rowley:  weaving  begun  at,  134. 

Roxbury :  at  end  of  common 
wealth,  386. 

Ruggles,  Martha:  courtship  of  by 
Judge  Sewall,  119. 

Ruggs,  Margery :  punished  for  en 
ticing  George  Palmer,  58. 

Rural  Life:  difference  between 
it  and  urban,  145. 

Sabbath:  began  Saturday  night, 
160 ,  comparison  of  Scotch  and 
Puritan  Saturday  night,  160 ; 
laws  enforcing  observance,  163. 
See  Chap.  VIII,  The  Puritan 
Sabbath,  pp.  160-173. 

Salem:  settlement,  16,25;  pot 
tery  established  at,  133;  Quak 
ers  at,  244. 

Salt'  manufacture,  133. 

Saltonstall,  Sir  Richard:  fined, 
59 ;  settles  Watertown,  145 

Sassacus,  Chief:  endeavors  to 
form  Indian  coalition  to  exter 
minate  the  colonists,  79;  de 
feated,  80. 

Saturday  night:  in  the  common 
wealth,  163. 

Saw  Mills :  introduced,  95. 

Scituate:  in  King  Philip's  war, 
92. 

Scotch  Presbyterianism :  in  17th 
century,  193. 

Scott,  Roger :  fined  for  sleeping  in 
church,  59. 

Scroggs:  judge  in  reign  of  James 
II,  8. 

Scroobi/  (in  England) :  location, 
1;  Puritan  congregation  at,  1. 

Selectmen:  powers  of,  275. 

Servants:  provisions  as  to,  55,  205. 

Sewall,  Betty :  hiding  from  Capt. 
Tuthill,  113;  her  conversion, 
195. 


INDEX. 


419 


Sewall,  Judith :  Gov.  Dudley  asks 
her  father  for  permission  for 
his  son  to  wait  upon  her,  113 ; 
her  wedding  outfit,  121 . 

Sewall,  Judge  Samuel:  his  law 
books,  71 ;  educated  for  pulpit, 
71 ;  his  legal  education,  71 ;  re 
grets  for  decision  in  case  of 
Widow  Bellingham,  72,  and 
for  his  part  in  the  witch 
craft  trials,  72 ;  advice  to  Jus 
tice  Davenport,  72 ;  opponent  of 
slavery,  72 ;  his  diary  and  let 
ters,  72;  sends  to  London  for 
fine  furniture,  97;  his  court 
ships,  113;  orders  wedding  out 
fit  in  London  for  his  daughter 
Judith,  121;  inventory  of  his 
accumulation  of  funeral  pres 
ents,  126;  setting  the  tune  in 
church,  171;  his  books,  177; 
sends  to  London  for  fine  cloth 
ing,  385. 

Shaw,  Ch.  J. :  his  explanation  of 
meaning  of  "Liberties,"  49; 
commendation  of  Body  of  Lib 
erties,  49. 

Shepard,  Rev. :  persecution  of  by 
Archbishop  Laud,  5;  one  of 
committee  to  draft  code  of  laws, 
45, 46 ;  had  achieved  distinction 
in  England,  196;  a  fugitive 
from  there,  197 ;  at  trial  of  Ann 
Hutchinson,  224. 

Sherman,  Mrs. :  her  lawsuit  with 
Capt.  Keayne,  288. 

Sherman,  Rev.  John:  his  large 
family,  94. 

Silvester,  Peter:  punished  for 
speaking  against  the  law  about 
hogs,  40. 

Singing  Schools :  introduction, 
111. 

Slavery :  in  Massachusetts,  50,  55, 
311. 

Smith,  Sydney :  Reply  to  Billings 
gate  fish-woman,  100. 

South  Carolina:  laws  against 
witchcraft,  63. 

South  Church :  seized  for  Episco 
pal  services,  388. 

Spain:  trade  of  commonwealth 
with,  134. 

Spencer,  William:  one  of  com 
mittee  to  draft  code  of  laws,  46. 

Spinning:  laws  to  encourage,  133. 


Springfield:  in  King  Philip's  war, 
92. 

Stage  Coaches,  109. 

Standing  Council:  opposition  of 
people  to,  286. 

Stanley,  Mathew:  fined  for  win 
ning  affections  of  daughter  of 
John  Tarbox,  60. 

Star  Chamber:  of  England,  7. 

States'  Rights :  doctrine,  312. 

Steele,  John:  confers  as  to  New 
England  Confederation,  305. 

Sternhold  and  Hopkins:  version 
of  Psalms,  170. 

Stocks:  what  crimes  punished  by 
putting  in,  57. 

Stone,  Capt.  John:  punished  for 
confronting  authority,  40. 

Stone,  Rev.  Samuel:  definition  of 
Congregational  church  govern 
ment,  283. 

Stoughton,  Israel :  commands 
Massachusetts  troops  in  Pequot 
war,  80 ;  at  trial  of  Ann  Hutch 
inson,  229. 

Stoughton,  William:  one  of  a 
committee  to  draft  a  code  of 
laws,  46;  educated  for  pulpit, 
71 ;  one  of  judges  at  the  witch 
craft  trials,  71 ;  he  and  Bulke- 
ley  sent  as  agents  to  England, 
363 ;  remain  nearly  three  years, 
364;  their  return/366. 

Stoves:  when  introduced,  95;  in 
churches,  166. 

Strangers:  surveillance  over,  41; 
strict  laws  against,  200. 

Stray  Pig:  dispute  over  and  its 
consequences,  288. 

Struggle  for  Independence,  the: 
Chapters  XV,  XVI,  pp.  315- 
382. 

Stuffing  the  Ballot-box:  law 
against,  52. 

Sudbury:  in  King  Philip's  war, 
92,  156 ;  settlement  of,  146, 156 ; 
life  of  early  settlers,  156 ;  train 
ing  field  there,  150. 

Suffrage :  limited  to  church  mem 
bers,  36,  199;  law  as  to  illegal 
voting,  52;  effect  of  failure  to 
extend  to  non-church  members, 
297;  no  authority  in  charter 
for  restricting  to  members  of 
Puritan  churches,  297. 


420 


INDEX. 


jSivift,  Rev.  John :  wrote  most  of 
wills  in  Framingham,  in  his 
time,  68. 

Synods:  of  1647,  250;  subsequent, 
251. 

Tanneries:  establishment  of,  133. 

Tarbox,  John:  Mathew  Stanley 
sued  for  winning  his  daughter's 
affections,  60. 

Taxation:  opposition  to  exer 
cise  of  taxing  power  by  the  as 
sistants,  38 ;  revenue  laws,  53 ; 
few  exemptions  from,  53;  fix 
ing  rates,  53;  opposition  of 
people  of  Watertown  to  taxa 
tion  without  representation, 
285 ;  opposition  of  colonists  to 
arbitrary  taxation  by  England, 
356,  365.  See  Eevenue  Laws. 

Tea :  use  of,  104. 

Teachers:  only  orthodox  em 
ployed  in  schools  and  college, 
174,  206. 

Tenure  of  lands :  laws  denning, 
53. 

Thanksgiving :  dinners,  103 ;  days, 
109. 

Theatrical  Entertainments :  for 
bidden,  110. 

Theocracy:  effort  to  establish  a 
Biblical  Commonwealth,  193; 
Theocracy  not  recognized  as  a 
distinct  body,  195;  composed 
of  a  small  minority  of  ministers, 
195;  its  attempts  to  regulate 
men's  thoughts,  206;  intimate 
union  between  church  and 
state,  209 ;  tendency  to  religious 
persecution,  209  ;  recognition  of 
its  power  by  civil  authorities, 
209;  banishment  of  the 
Brownes,  210;  contest  with 
Roger  Williams,  211 ;  trial  and 
banishment  of  Ann  Hutchinson, 
223,  232 ;  banishment  of  Wheel 
wright,  223 ;  persecution  of  re 
monstrants  in  favor  of  Wheel 
wright,  232 ;  proceedings 
against  Vassal  and  others,  234 ; 
persecution  of  Baptists,  235 ; 
contest  with  Quakers,  237 ;  con 
tained  elements  of  its  own  de 
struction,  245;  effect  of  spread 
of  dissenting  beliefs,  246 ;  of 
expansion  of  commerce,  252; 


of  growth  of  republican  ideas r 
252 ;  majority  of  people  opposed 
to  tyranny  of,  252;  its  power 
ended  by  revocation  of  charter. 
253.  See  Chaps.  X  and  XI. 
Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Theocracy, 
pp.  193-268. 

Thursday  Lecture  Days :  109. 

Tilley,  Widow :  courtship  and 
marriage  of  by  Judge  Sewall, 
114. 

Tithing -men:  duty  to  set  idlers  to 
work,  131;  duties  in  church, 
168. 

Titles:  use  of ,  128. 

Tobacco:  laws  against  use,  104. 

Torture:  law  as  to,  50. 

Town  Clerks :  importance  of 
office,  275. 

Towns:  authorized  to  dispose  of 
lands,  54,  274;  great  number 
of  local  officers,  60;  origin  of 
the  New  England  town  sys 
tem,  269;  not  modeled  after 
precedent,  271 ;  development, 
272;  the  Dorchester  plan,  273; 
the  Charlestown  plan,  273; 
when  first  recognized  as  dis 
tinct  local  municipalities,  274; 
authorized  to  select  deputies  to 
General  Court,  274;  chief  offi 
cers  of  the  town,  275 ;  town 
meetings,  276 ;  cardinal  idea  of 
the  town  system,  276;  great 
importance  of  the  town  meet 
ings,  276;  value  as  an  aid  to 
education,  277;  importance  as 
political  factors,  277;  advan 
tages  of  town  meetings  in  revo 
lutionary  war  period,  278;  Jef 
ferson's  tribute  to,  280 ;  kind  of 
business  transacted  in  early 
towns,  281 ;  towns  abolished  un 
der  Andros,  388.  See  Chap. 
XII,  Planting  the  Seed  of  a 
Republic,  etc.,  pp.  269-281. 

Transmission  of  Property :  laws 
regulating,  51. 

Traveling:  mode  of,  104;  forbid 
den  on  Sabbath,  163. 

Tuthill,  Capt. :  abortive  attempt 
to  court  Betty  Sewall,  113. 

United  Colonies  of  New  England : 
origin,  301 ;  reasons  for  form 
ing,  301;  preliminary  negotia- 


INDEX. 


42I 


t  i  o  n  s  ,  303 ;  negotiations  re 
sumed,  306 ;  articles  of  confed- 
e  r  a  t  i  o  n  adopted,  307  ;  why 
Maine  and  Rhode  Island  left 
out,  307 ;  subsequent  refusal  to 
admit  Rhode  Island,  308;  chief 
provisions  of  the  articles,  308; 
none  but  members  of  Puritan 
churches  eligible  to  be  commis 
sioners,  309 ;  provisions  as  to 
fugitives  from  justice  and  from 
service,  311 ;  further  develop 
ment  of  idea  of  local  self-gov 
ernment,  311 ;  the  confedera 
tion  the  beginning  of  the  Unit 
ed  States,  312 ;  end  of  confed 
eration,  314.  See  Chap.  XIV, 
Laying  the  Foundations  of  a 
Greater  Republic,  etc.,  pp.  301- 
314. 

Vane,  Gov.  Henry :  sides  with 
Ann  Hutchinson,  216 ;  his  dra 
matic  exhibition  before  the 
General  Court,  2] 6;  contest  for 
governorship  with  Winthrop, 
218;  character,  219;  his  writ 
ings,  220;  conduct  in  impeach 
ment  of  Earl  of  Straff ord,  220; 
remained  friend  of  colonists, 
223;  his  heroic  death,  223. 

Vassal,  William:  petition  of  him 
and  others  to  General  Court, 
234. 

Villeinage:  in  Massachusetts  pro 
hibited,  50. 

Virginia :  laws  against  witchcraft, 
63,  trade  of  Massachusetts 
with,  134;  persecution  of  Qua 
kers  in,  259 ;  expulsion  of  John 
Porter  from  house  of  represen 
tatives  because  "too  loving"  to 
Quakers,  260;  laws  against 
Baptists  and  other  non-con 
formists,  261 ;  persecution  of 
Puritans,  261 ;  banishment  of 
Daniel  Gookin,  261 ;  banish 
ment  of  Puritan  ministers,  261 ; 
shameful  treatment  of  by 
Charles  II,  317. 

Wadsworth,  Ma].:  death  at  Sud- 
bury,  88. 

Wages:  payable  in  commodities, 
136;  laws  regulating,  138;  fail 
ure  to  enforce  laws,  143. 


Walker,   Garrison:    at    Sudbury, 

150. 
War:  power  to  make  conferred 

by  charter,  30. 

Ward,  Rev.  Nathaniel:  work  in 
framing  Body  of  Liberties,  47, 
49 ;  graduate  of  Emmanuel  Col 
lege,  67 ;  studied  and  practiced 
law  in  England,  67;  sermon 
against  ungodly  female  attire, 
99 ;  eulogizes  Anne  Bradstreet's 
poems,  182;  eccentricity  in 
style  of  his  writings,  189;  op 
posed  to  submitting  laws  to 
consideration  of  the  freemen, 
283. 

Water:  of  New  England,  103. 
jVatertown:  settlement,    26,    145; 
'"opposition  of  people  to  taxation 

without  representation,  285. 
Waters,   Lawrence:    he  and  his 
wife  admonished    by  General 
Court  to  avoid  dancing,  110. 
Watson:  a  patron,  69. 
Wealth:  increase   of  wealth  and 
luxury    at    end     of     common 
wealth,  385. 

Weaving:  begun  at  Rowley,  134. 
Weights     and     Measures:     early 

laws  regulating,  39. 
Welde,  Joseph :  custodian  of  Ann 
Hutchinson    after  sentence  of 
banishment,  231. 
Welde,  Rev.  Thomas:  at  trial  of 
Ann  Hutchinson,  224,  230;    his 
"A   Short    Story   of  the  Rise, 
Reign    and    Ruin    of    Aiitino- 
mianism,  etc.,"  246. 
Weymouth;  in  King  Philip's  war, 

92. 
Whale  Fishing :  when  established, 

95. 

Wheelwright,  Rev.  John :  becomes 
a  convert  to  teachings  of  Ann 
Hutchinson,  216 ;  conviction  of 
heresy,  217;  remonstrance  iu 
his  favor,  217;  his  banishment, 
41,  223;  persecution  of  remon 
strants,  223 ;  difference  of  opin 
ion  between  him  and  the  other 
ministers,  246. 

Whipping :  what  crimes  punished 
by,  57;  exemption  of  gentle 
men,  128. 

White,  Rev.  John :  of  Scrooby,  1 ; 
his  character,  10 ;  his  efforts  to.- 


422 


INDEX. 


v/ 


establish  a  colony  in  America, 
12;  his  account  of  reasons  for 
emigration  of  Puritans  to  Amer 
ica,  13. 

Whitmore,  William  H.:  his  edi 
tion  of  Colonial  Laws,  58,  note. 

Whittier,  John  G.:  "The  Old 
Burying  Ground,"  125. 

Wigglesworth,  Michael:  his  po 
ems,  183. 

William  and  Mary:  landing  of 
William  in  England,  391;  not 
favorable  to  independence  of 
Massachusetts,  391. 

Williams,  Rev.  Roger:  debate  be 
tween  him  and  Cotton  on  wom 
en's  veils,  100;  his  character, 
211;  his  religious  and  political 

-*  views,  211 ;  banishment,  212 ; 
subsequent  disputation  between 
him  and  Cotton,  212;  modifi 
cation  of  his  views  in  later  life, 
213 ;  his  affection  for  Massachu 
setts  and  for  Winthrop,  213; 
his  services  to  the  common 
wealth  in  the  Indian  troubles, 
214;  shabby  treatment  of  him 
by  Massachusetts  authorities  in 
his  old  age,  214 ;  grants  Gorton 
shelter  in  Rhode  Island,  262. 

Wilson,  Deborah :  the  Quakeress 
at  Salem,  248. 

Wilson,  George:  the  Quaker  at 
Boston,  245. 

Wilson,  Rev.  John:  chosen  one  of 
the  first  ministers,  34;  makes 
first  "stump  speech"  in  Amer 
ica,  219. 

Windows:  kind  of  glass  used  in, 
95 ;  use  of  oiled  paper,  95. 

Winslow,  Gov.  Edward:  com 
mands  troops  in  attack  on  In 
dian  fort,  90 ;  defends  colonists 
in  England  against  complaints 
of  Maverick  and  others,  235; 
sent  as  agent  to  England,  his 
instructions,  328 ;  information 
returned  by  him,  329. 

Winthrop,  Gov.  John  (Sr.)  :  signs 
the  Cambridge  agreement,  16; 
chosen  governor  of  Massachu 
setts  company,  17;  sails  from 
Yarmouth,  18;  arrival  in 
America,  18 ;  his  character,  20 ; 
one  of  committee  to  draft  code 


of  laws,  45 ;  trained  as  a  lawyer 
in  England,  68 ;  reproof  of  dep 
uty  for  extravagance,  96 ;  his 
"History  of  New  England," 
180 ;  correspondence  between 
him  and  Roger  Williams,  214 ; 
his  advice  to  the  latter,  214; 
contest  with  Vane  for  office  of 
governor,  218;  his  conduct  at 
trial  of  Ann  Hutchinsonr  223 ; 
observed  how  freemen  stuck  to 
the  charter,  284 ;  his  objections 
to  Connecticut  form  of  gov 
ernment,  284,  305 ;  opposition 
of  people  to  electing  him  gov 
ernor  for  lif 6^287;  upholds  as 
sistants  in  claim  of  right  to  a 
negative  vote,  289;  speech  de 
fining  liberty,  290;  opposition 
to  claims  of  clergy^_294 ;  his 
statement  of  grounds  justifying 
colonists  in  declaring  independ 
ence  of  England,  318 ;  his  death, 
386;  influence  in  founding  the 
commonwealth,  394. 

Winthrop,  Gov.  John  (Jr.) :  his 
library,  176. 

Winthrop,  Katherine :  courtship  of 
by  Judge  Sewall,  115 ;  family 
arms  borne  at  her  funeral,  129. 

Winthrop,  Gen. Wait:  family  arms 
borne  at  funeral  of  his  widow, 
Katherine,  129. 

Wise,  Rev.  John:  persecution  of 
under  Andros,  387. 

Witchcraft:  laws  against,  63;  Sir 
William  Blackstone's  belief  in, 
63;  laws  against  of  England 
and  of  other  American  colonies, 
63;  judges  in  the  witchcraft 
trials,  71. 

Witter,  William :  requests  visit  of 
Baptist  brethren  from  Rhode 
Island,  235;  presented  for  be 
ing  re-baptized,  60,  236. 

Woodbridge,  Timothy:  letter  of 
Judge  Sewall  to,  119. 

Woods,  William:  his  "New  Eng 
land's  Prospect,"  181. 

Woolrige,  John :  reprimanded  for 
offenses  committed  in  England, 
44. 

Yarmouth  (Eng.)  :  Winthrop  sails 
from,  18. 


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